Cerastium glomeratum

Last updated

Cerastium glomeratum
(MHNT) Cerastium glomeratum - habitus.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Genus: Cerastium
Species:
C. glomeratum
Binomial name
Cerastium glomeratum

Cerastium glomeratum is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names sticky mouse-ear chickweed and clammy chickweed. It is native to Europe, Macaronesia to Assam but is known on most continents as an introduced species. [1] It grows in many types of habitat. The blooming period is February, March, April, and May. [2]

Contents

Description

The upper stem and flowers are covered in glandular hairs CerastiumG3.jpg
The upper stem and flowers are covered in glandular hairs

This is an annual herb growing from a slender taproot. It produces a branched stem up to 45 centimeters tall, with abundant glandular and non-glandular hairs. The leaves are opposite, hairy, up to 2 cm long, and the basal ones typically die back before flowering. The bracts are green, hairy and generally similar to the leaves.

The inflorescence bears as few as 3 or as many as 50 small, dioecious flowers arranged in a cyme and borne on very short pedicels. Each flower has 5 hairy green sepals which are occasionally red-tipped, and 5 white bifid petals which are a few millimeters long and generally about the same length as the sepals. The fruit is a capsule less than a centimeter long which is tipped with ten tiny teeth. [3] [4]

Identification

The flowers of sticky mouse-ear are often bunched together, on short stalks Cerastium glomeratum inflorescence.jpg
The flowers of sticky mouse-ear are often bunched together, on short stalks

This plant usually has abundant glandular hairs towards the top of the stem and on the sepals. Because it is an annual, plants are easily uprooted and every stem develops flowers. The flowers are also borne on very short pedicels (stalks), so they tend to occur in tight clusters. [3]

Taxonomy

It was named by Jean Louis Thuillier in his "Flore des Environs de Paris" (1800). Many synonyms have been coined over the years, which are listed in the Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular plants of the World. Many forms, varieties and subspecies have also been named, but none is now widely accepted. It is not known to hybridise with any other species. [5]

Its chromosome number is 2n=72. [3]

Habitat

Frequent in waste places, [4] walls, banks and arable land. [6] [7]

Uses

The leaves and shoots were used as a wild food in ancient China. [8] In Nepal, the juice of this plant was applied to the forehead to relieve headaches. The juice could also be dropped into the nostrils to treat nosebleeds. [9]

The leaves can also be boiled and eaten. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Stellaria media</i> Species of flowering plant (chickweed)

Stellaria media, chickweed, is an annual flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Eurasia and naturalized throughout the world, where it is a weed of waste ground, farmland and gardens. It is sometimes grown as a salad crop or for poultry consumption.

<i>Cerastium arvense</i> Species of flowering plant in the pink family Caryophyllaceae

Cerastium arvense is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names field mouse-ear and field chickweed. It is a widespread species, occurring throughout Europe and North America, as well as parts of South America. It is a variable species. There are several subspecies, but the number and defining characteristics are disputed.

<i>Cerastium fontanum</i> Species of flowering plant in the pink family Caryophyllaceae

Cerastium fontanum, also called mouse-ear chickweed, common mouse-ear, or starweed, is a species of mat-forming perennial or, rarely, annual plant. It is native to Europe but introduced elsewhere. Its identifying characteristics are tear-shaped leaves growing opposite one another in a star pattern, hairy leaves, and small white flowers. Mouse-ear chickweed typically grows to 4"-8" tall and spreads horizontally along the ground via the formation of roots wherever the stem falls over and contacts the ground.

<i>Calycadenia multiglandulosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Calycadenia multiglandulosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, known by the common names sticky calycadenia and sticky western rosinweed. It is endemic to California, where it is a common in the Coast Ranges and in the Sierra Nevada Foothills from Shasta County to Kern County.

<i>Sagina apetala</i> Species of flowering plant

Sagina apetala is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names annual pearlwort and dwarf pearlwort. It is native to Europe and it is known elsewhere as an introduced species, including parts of North America. It grows in many types of disturbed habitat, such as cracks in the sidewalk. It is a petite annual herb producing a threadlike stem just a few centimeters long, spreading or growing erect. The plant is glandular and somewhat hairy. The leaves are linear in shape and not more than about a centimeter long. The inflorescence is a solitary flower borne on a threadlike pedicel. The flower has usually four sepals and generally no petals.

Salvia greatae is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. Its common names include Orocopia sage and lavender sage.

Silene serpentinicola is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name serpentine Indian pink and serpentine catchfly.

<i>Silene campanulata</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene campanulata is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Red Mountain catchfly and bell catchfly. It may be a synonym of Silene greenei.

<i>Silene lemmonii</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene lemmonii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name Lemmon's catchfly.

<i>Silene menziesii</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene menziesii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Menzies' campion and Menzies' catchfly. It is native to western North America from Alaska through the western half of Canada to the southwestern United States. It can be found in many types of habitat and it is quite common in much of its range. It is variable in morphology and there are a number of varied subtaxa. In general, it is a perennial herb growing from a caudex, appearing matlike, decumbent, or erect, with stems a few centimeters to over half a meter long. It is usually hairy in texture, with upper parts bearing sticky glandular hairs. The leaves are lance-shaped, oppositely arranged in pairs, and a few centimeters in length, upper leaves usually smaller than lower. Flowers may occur in a cyme at the top of the stem, or in leaf axils, or both. Each is encapsulated in a hairy, veined calyx of fused sepals. The petals are white with two lobes at the tips. The plant is dioecious with male and female plants producing different flowers. The male and female flower types look the same externally; the stamens are reduced in female plants and the stigmas are reduced in the male.

<i>Silene noctiflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene noctiflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names night-flowering catchfly, nightflowering silene and clammy cockle. It is native to Eurasia, but it is known on other continents as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. In North America, it is a common weed of grain crops in the Canadian prairie provinces and in much of the United States. It grows in fields and in other disturbed habitat.

<i>Spergularia macrotheca</i> Species of flowering plant in the pink family Caryophyllaceae

Spergularia macrotheca is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name sticky sandspurry. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California, where it grows in many types of moist coastal and inland habitat, often in alkaline and saline substrates. It may be found in marshes, alkali flats, beaches, meadows, seeps, and vernal pools. It is a perennial herb producing a narrow stem up to 40 centimeters long with a woody, thickened base and taproot. They may grow erect or prostrate across the ground. It is covered in sticky glandular hairs, especially in the inflorescence. The stems are lined with fleshy linear leaves, sometimes tipped with spines. The leaves are accompanied by triangular stipules up to a centimeter long each. Flowers occur in clusters at the end of the stem as well as in leaf axils. The small flowers have five pointed sepals and five oval white to lavender-pink petals. The fruit is a capsule containing tiny reddish brown, winged seeds.

<i>Stellaria neglecta</i> Species of flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae

Stellaria neglecta, greater chickweed, is an annual to short-lived herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in hedges and woodland margins on neutral to slightly acid, damp soils, and is widespread but rarely abundant. It has been introduced to North America, where it has been spreading in recent decades.

<i>Stachys chamissonis</i> Species of flowering plant

Stachys chamissonis is a species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common name coastal hedgenettle. It is a perennial herb native to the west coast of North America, where it grows in moist coastal habitat from Alaska to central California. This mint produces an erect stem 1 to 2+12 meters. It is hairy, glandular, and aromatic. The oppositely arranged leaves have pointed, wavy-edged blades up to 18 centimeters (7.1 in) long which are borne on petioles. The hairy, glandular inflorescence is made up of interrupted clusters of up to six flowers each. The flower has a deep pink tubular corolla which can be over 3 centimeters (1.2 in) long. The corollas are borne in hairy calyces of purple or purple-tinged sepals.

<i>Stellaria apetala</i> Species of flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae

Stellaria apetala, lesser chickweed, is an annual herbaceous plant in the flowering plant family Caryophyllaceae. It occurs in short, sandy grassland by the sea and, less often, in similar habitat inland. It is native to Europe and is well established as an introduced species worldwide.

<i>Stellaria obtusa</i> Species of flowering plant

Stellaria obtusa is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Rocky Mountain chickweed, blunt-sepaled starwort, and obtuse starwort. It is native to western North America, from British Columbia and Alberta to California to Colorado, where it grows in moist areas in forests and on mountain slopes.

<i>Trifolium microcephalum</i> Species of legume

Trifolium microcephalum is a species of clover known by the common names smallhead clover and small-headed clover.

Tripterocalyx crux-maltae is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common names Lassen sandverbena and Kellogg's sand-verbena.

<i>Tripterocalyx micranthus</i> Species of flowering plant

Tripterocalyx micranthus is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by the common names smallflower sandverbena and small-flowered sand-verbena.

<i>Cerastium diffusum</i> Species of flowering plant in the pink family Caryophyllaceae

Cerastium diffusum, the fourstamen chickweed or sea mouse-ear, is a species of flowering plant in the pink and carnation family Caryophyllaceae. It is an annual herb, to 30 cm.high, occurring in western Europe and northern Africa. Found mainly in coastal areas of Algeria, the Baleares, Belgium, Corsica, Denmark, France, the Faroe Islands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Libya, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain and Sweden. The flowers have 4, petals, 4 or 5 stamens appearing between March and May. The petals are much shorter than the sepals. The leaves are opposite, (sessile) without petioles and the sepals and bracts are all green, without pale margins. The fruit petioles are erect and diffuse at maturity.

References

  1. "Cerastium glomeratum Thuill". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  2. "Calflora: Cerastium glomeratum". www.calflora.org. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  3. 1 2 3 Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles. Suffolk. ISBN   978-1-5272-2630-2.
  4. 1 2 Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012 Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. ISBN   978-185918-4783
  5. Stace, C.A. (1975). Hybridization and the Flora of the British Isles. London: Academic Press. ISBN   0-12-661650-7.
  6. Hackney, P. (editor) 1992. Stewart & Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast. ISBN   0-85389-446-9
  7. Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Second edition. Cambridge University Press.
  8. Read. B.E. (1977) Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao . Southern Materials Centre, Taipei.
  9. "Cerastium glomeratum sticky chickweed PFAF Plant Database". www.pfaf.org. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  10. Niering, William A.; Olmstead, Nancy C. (1985) [1979]. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region. Knopf. p. 455. ISBN   0-394-50432-1.