Drummond's stitchwort

Arenaria drummondii Shinners, Field & Lab. 17: 89. 1949, based on Stellaria nuttallii Torrey & A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 183. 1838, not A. nuttallii Pax 1893

Plants annual. Taproots filiform. Stems erect to ascending, green, 5-20 cm, stipitate-glandular, often densely so, internodes of all stems 1-3 times as long as leaves. Leaves overlapping proximally, perfoliate proximally, with ± loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.5-1 mm; blade green, flat, 1-veined, oblanceolate to cuneate (proximal) to oblong-lanceolate to ovate (remaining cauline), 5-30(-35) × 2-4 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, ± scarious, smooth, apex green to purple, obtuse to abruptly pointed, dull, glabrous; axillary leaves absent. Inflorescences 7-12-flowered, open cymes, or rarely solitary, terminal; bracts ± lanceolate, herbaceous, sometimes scarious-margined proximally. Pedicels reflexed in fruit, 0.5-2.5 cm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium disc-shaped; sepals obscurely veined, ovate to broadly elliptic (herbaceous portion ovate to broadly elliptic), 3-6 mm, to 7 mm in fruit, apex green or purple, acute to acuminate, not hooded, stipitate-glandular; petals obovate to oblanceolate, 2-2.5 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched. Capsules sessile, broadly ellipsoid, 6-7.5 mm, equaling or longer than sepals. Seeds dark brown to blackish, orbiculate with radicle prolonged into beak, only slightly compressed, 0.7-0.8 mm, echinate with rounded tubercles.

Flowering late winter-early summer. Open grassy woodlands, sandy soils; 0-500 m; Ark., La., Okla., Tex.

Minuartia drummondii is easily recognized by the proportionally large corollas (petals to three times as long as sepals) and pedicels reflexing in fruit.