Habit: Annual, perennial herb, erect to prostrate; taprooted, rhizomed.
Stem: 4-angled or round.
Leaf: petioled or not; linear to ovate, vein 1.
Inflorescence: terminal or axillary, umbel-like or not, open to dense; flowers 1--many (if 1, axillary); peduncles, pedicels 0.8--50+ mm.
Flower: sepals 5(6), free, 1.5--5.5 mm, lanceolate to ovate, glabrous to glandular-hairy, ribs in fruit 1--3, generally visible to prominent; petals 0 or (1)5, 0.8--7 mm, 2-lobed > 1/2 to base; stamens 10 or fewer; styles 3(4--5 in
Stellaria calycantha), 0.2--2.8 mm.
Fruit: capsule, +- ovoid or spheric to cylindric-oblong; valves 6(8,10), ascending to recurved.
Seed: several to many, brown to +- yellow, +- red, or purple-brown.
Species In Genus: +- 112--150 species: worldwide.
Etymology: (Latin: star, from flower shape)
Note: Presence of papillae on leaf margins determined at 20×.
Stellaria obtusa now treated in
Engellaria.
Jepson eFlora Author: Ronald L. Hartman (deceased) & Richard K. Rabeler
Reference: Morton 2005 FNANM 5:96--114; Sharples & Tripp 2019 Syst Bot 44:857--876.
Unabridged Reference: Chinnappa & Morton 1991 Rhodora 93:129--135; Morton & Rabeler 1989 Canad J Bot 67:121--127; Morton 2005 FNANM 5:96--114Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Stellaria
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