?Stellaria diversiflora Maximowicz var. gymnandra Franchet; S. media (Linnaeus) Villars var. decandra Fenzl; S. media Villars var. procera Klatt & Richter; S. octandra Pobedimova.

Herbs annual or biennial, pale green. Stems tufted, 30--80 cm tall, with 1 line of hairs. Leaves shortly petiolate or sessile, ovate or narrowly ovate, (1.5--)2--3 × 0.5--1.3 cm, base cuneate, somewhat clasping, apex acute, basal leaf margin and stems between 2 basal leaves long hairy. Flowers terminal in dichotomous cymes; bracts lanceolate, herbaceous, glandular pubescent. Pedicel 1--1.5 cm, slender, with a line of dense soft hairs, nodding after anthesis. Sepals 5, ovate-elliptic to lanceolate, 3--4(--5) mm, outside densely pubescent with multicellular glandular hairs, margin membranous, apex acute, inflexed. Petals 5, nearly as long as or slightly longer than sepals, 2-cleft nearly to base. Stamens (6--)8--10, slightly longer than petals. Styles 3. Capsule ovoid, longer than persistent sepals, 6-valved; valves revolute. Seeds numerous, brown, nearly compressed orbicular, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., with sparse conical papillae. Fl. Apr--Jun, fr. Jun--Aug. 2n = 22.

Mixed forests; 900--1200 m. Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Russia; N Africa, SW Asia, S Europe].