Star chickweed

Alsine pubera (Michaux) Britton; A. pubera var. tennesseensis C. Mohr

Plants perennial, with stems loosely tufted, rhizomatous. Stems erect, branched, 4-sided, 10-40 cm, with alternating lines of spreading, soft, flexuous, mainly eglandular hairs. Leaves usually sessile (distal), often short-petiolate (proximal); blade elliptic, obovate, or lanceolate, widest at or beyond middle, 1-10 cm × 5-35 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, glabrous to sparsely pubescent adaxially, ciliate on margins and abaxial midrib. Inflorescences terminal, 3-70-flowered cymes; bracts elliptic to lanceolate, 7-65 mm, herbaceous. Pedicels erect in flower, often deflexed at base in fruit, 5-40 mm, softly pubescent. Flowers (8-)10-12 mm diam.; sepals 5, with midrib, ovate, 3.5-6 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex obtuse to acute, softly and often sparsely pubescent; petals 5, 4-8 mm, longer than sepals; stamens 10; styles 3, ascending, 2.5 mm. Capsules green to straw colored, broadly ovoid, 3.5-5.5 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. Seeds brown, obliquely reniform, 1.5-2 mm diam., coarsely sulcate-papillate. 2n = 30.

Flowering spring. Rich deciduous woods, alluvial bottomlands; 100-1000 m; Ala., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ind., Ky., Md., Nebr., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Stellaria pubera has been introduced in Nebraska and possibly in Illinois. It is very similar to S. corei but is distinguished by its shorter, more ovate sepals.