Stellaria pallida

Nile region, Oases, Mediterranean region and Sinai (St.Katherine).

Europe, Mediterranean region, West Asia.

Stellaria pallida is automatically self-pollinated and often cleistogamous. It usually can be distinguished from apetalous forms of S. media by its smaller size, yellowish green color, its small sepals and small, pale seeds. Also the base and tip of the sepals occasionally are dark-red pigmented.

Chinese records of Stellaria apetala Ucria (e.g., in FRPS) are almost certainly referable to S. pallida .

Plants annual, usually yellowish green, with slender taproot. Stems prostrate, much-branched, 4-sided, usually 10-20(-40) cm, glabrous, with single line of hairs along each internode. Leaves petiolate (proximal) or sessile (distal); blade ovate to elliptic, usually 0.3-1.5 cm × 1-7 mm, base round to cuneate, margins entire, apex shortly acuminate, glabrous or with few cilia on margins and abaxial midrib. Inflorescences terminal, 3-35-flowered cymes; bracts lanceolate, 2-10 mm, herbaceous, margins entire. Pedicels spreading, sometimes deflexed at base in fruit, 1-10 mm, pubescent. Flowers 2-3 mm diam.; sepals 4-5, veins obscure, midrib sometimes present, lanceolate, 3-4 mm, margins narrow, herbaceous, apex acute, pubescent; petals usually absent; stam t; styles 3, ascending, becoming curled, 0.2-0.5 mm. Capsules pale straw colored, ovoid, 2-4(-5) mm, equaling to slightly longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves, outwardly curled at tip; carpophore absent. Seeds pale yellowish brown, reniform to round, 0.5-0.9 mm diam., tuberculate; tubercles prominent, broader than tall, apex obtuse. 2n = 22.

Herbs annual or biennial. Stems usually decumbent, sometimes ascending, basal branches with 1 line of villous nonglandular hairs. Middle and distal leaves sessile, proximal leaves long petiolate; leaf blade suborbicular, small, 5--8(--15) mm, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, apex acute. Flowers in terminal dichotomous cymes. Pedicel slender. Sepals lanceolate, rarely ovate-lanceolate, 3--4 mm, ± densely pubescent, rarely glabrous, apex acute. Petals absent or minute. Stamens 3--5, rarely absent. Styles very short. Seeds pale red-brown, minute, 0.7--0.8 mm in diam., minutely tuberculate, margin shallowly serrate or smooth. 2n = 22.

introduced; Ont.; Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Fla., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Mich., Mo., Nebr., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., Wash., W.Va.; Mexico; Europe.

Flowering spring.

Dunes, sandy waste places, rest areas on interstate highways; 0-1500m.

Fields. Jiangsu, Xinjiang [Asia, Europe].

Alsine pallida Dumortier, Fl. Belg., 109. 1827; Stellaria boraeana Jordan; S. media (Linnaeus) Villars subsp. pallida (Dumortier) Ascherson & Graebner

Alsine pallida Dumortier, Fl. Belg. 109. 1827.