Botanical illustration from the book of
A. Dietrich Flora regni Borussici ,
1833-1844 Perennial herb with a thin creeping rhizome . Stems are rising, 20-35 cm (sometimes up to 60 cm) tall, branched in the upper part, tetrahedral, smooth, stiff-haired at the nodes.
Leaves of narrow-lanceolate form, with a pointed end, opposite, fused with bases, rigid on the edge and on the middle vein on the underside, 4–9 cm long and not more than 1.3 cm wide.
The flowers are collected in a loose dichasic semi -umbrella of 3-30, on short-pubescent pedicels up to 4 cm long. Sepals are smooth, sharp, usually 7-10 mm long. White petals , including five (sometimes the corolla is reduced), divided into two lobes of a linearly-oblong shape up to half, is twice as long as the cup. The stigma of the pestle is three; the stamens are usually ten.
Fruits - spherical capsules 5-6 mm long, slightly longer than the calyx. Open with three wings, then each splits into two more. Seeds 2-3 mm in diameter, kidney-shaped, red-brown, with a surface covered by papillae.
Long-growing plant with a high growth rate: one plant moves along horizontal shoots at distances of up to 1 meter or more during the season. Shoots appear in May, survive exclusively in areas deprived of vegetation.
The birthplace of the plant is Central and Northern Eurasia. Widely distributed in deciduous and mixed forests.
Introduced to North America, in a number of US states it naturalized.
A valid description ( diagnosis ) of Stellaria holostea was published in the book Species plantarum (1753) by Karl Linnaeus : Stellaria foliis lanceolatis serrulatis, petalis bifidis - " asterisk with fine-toothed lanceolate leaves, with bifid petals." The view "from the forests of Europe" is described.
Synonyms
- Alsine holostea (L.) Britton , 1894
- Alsine scabra Stokes , 1812
- Cerastium holosteum (L.) Crantz , 1766
- Stellaria cantalica Jord.Puyf. , 1872
- Stellaria ciliata Gilib. ex Bubani , 1901 , nom. illeg.
- Stellaria connata Dulac , 1867
- Stellaria glauca Salisb. , 1796
