Stellaria alsine | |
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Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Caryophyllales |
Family: | Caryophyllaceae |
Genus: | Stellaria |
Species: | S. alsine
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Binomial name | |
Stellaria alsine | |
Synonyms | |
Stellaria uliginosa Murray |
Stellaria alsine, the bog stitchwort, is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae. It grows in bogs and marshes in Europe and parts of North America.
Bog stitchwort is a rhizomatous perennial plant, with smooth, four-angled stems up to 40 cm (16 in) tall. [2] Its leaves are opposite and narrow, up to 13 mm (0.51 in) long, with untoothed margins but a few marginal hairs towards the leaf-base. [2] The flowers are borne in cymes of 1–5, arising from the axils of the higher leaves. Each flower is around 6 mm (0.24 in) in diameter, with 10 stamens, 3 stigmas, five lanceolate–triangular, green-coloured but scarious-margined sepals, and five slightly shorter white petals. [2] The petals are divided into two almost to their base with the two halves angled apart, [2] so that the two halves of each petal lie over parts of adjacent sepals. [3]
Bog stitchwort grows in various types of wetland habitat; in the British Isles, it is especially characteristic of areas poached by cattle. [4] It flowers in spring and early summer. [2]
Bog stitchwort is widespread in central and western Europe, but is rarer in eastern and southern Europe and the northern half of Scandinavia. [5] It is thought to be native to eastern parts of North America, but to be an introduced species in the Pacific Northwest. [2] It has also become naturalised in South America, in Asia, where it has become a weed of rice fields, [6] and on the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, where it is an aggressive invasive species. [7]
Stellaria alsine was first described by Johann Friedrich Carl Grimm in 1767. [2] The species has also been widely referred to under the junior synonym Stellaria uliginosa. [8]
Stellaria alsine | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Scientific classification
![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Caryophyllales |
Family: | Caryophyllaceae |
Genus: | Stellaria |
Species: | S. alsine
|
Binomial name | |
Stellaria alsine | |
Synonyms | |
Stellaria uliginosa Murray |
Stellaria alsine, the bog stitchwort, is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae. It grows in bogs and marshes in Europe and parts of North America.
Bog stitchwort is a rhizomatous perennial plant, with smooth, four-angled stems up to 40 cm (16 in) tall. [2] Its leaves are opposite and narrow, up to 13 mm (0.51 in) long, with untoothed margins but a few marginal hairs towards the leaf-base. [2] The flowers are borne in cymes of 1–5, arising from the axils of the higher leaves. Each flower is around 6 mm (0.24 in) in diameter, with 10 stamens, 3 stigmas, five lanceolate–triangular, green-coloured but scarious-margined sepals, and five slightly shorter white petals. [2] The petals are divided into two almost to their base with the two halves angled apart, [2] so that the two halves of each petal lie over parts of adjacent sepals. [3]
Bog stitchwort grows in various types of wetland habitat; in the British Isles, it is especially characteristic of areas poached by cattle. [4] It flowers in spring and early summer. [2]
Bog stitchwort is widespread in central and western Europe, but is rarer in eastern and southern Europe and the northern half of Scandinavia. [5] It is thought to be native to eastern parts of North America, but to be an introduced species in the Pacific Northwest. [2] It has also become naturalised in South America, in Asia, where it has become a weed of rice fields, [6] and on the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, where it is an aggressive invasive species. [7]
Stellaria alsine was first described by Johann Friedrich Carl Grimm in 1767. [2] The species has also been widely referred to under the junior synonym Stellaria uliginosa. [8]