Hairy Rupture Wort

Oases, Mediterranean region, Egyptian desert and Sinai.

Europe, Mediterranean region, Sinai, Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia.

Stony and sandy soils.

Annual.

We are following J. R. Akeroyd (1993) rather than M. N. Chaudhri (1968) in treating Herniaria cinerea as an infraspecific taxon of H. hirsuta. We believe it more appropriate to recognize the differences at varietal level; intermediate conditions found in both European and North American populations weaken the distinctions.

Plant parts contain saponin glycoside herniarin and an alkaloid paronychin. It is used as fodder for cattle and camels.

Plants annual, gray-green, densely pubescent. Stems prostrate to ascending, 4-20 cm. Leaves opposite proximally, often alternate distally; stipules 0.5-1.3 mm; blade elliptic to oblanceolate, 3-12 mm, hirsute or ciliate, ad-axial surface sometimes glabres-cent. Inflorescences axillary, leaf-opposed or on short branches, mostly 3-8-flowered. Flowers 0.9-1.8 mm, densely pubescent; calyx burlike; sepals equal or somewhat unequal, 0.8-1.5 mm, hirsute, hairs of perigynous zone hooked or tightly coiled, each sepal with 1-2 spinelike hairs at apex; stamens 2-3 or 5; staminodes petaloid, 0.4-0.6 mm; styles distinct or connate in proximal 1/3. Utricles 0.7-0.9 mm, ca. equaling sepals. 2n = 18, 36 (Europe).

Annual, prostrate, branched, hirsute, herb. Stem and branches with 2-4 mm long internodes, with short hairs. Leaves opposite, sessile, covered with stiff short hairs or older ones occasionally marginally ciliate, alternate on flowering shoots, narrowly elliptic-oblong to elliptic, 2-4 mm long and 1-1.25 mm wide, obtuse, margin entire, hirsute. Inflorescence dense leaf opposed, stellate cymose clusters of 6-9 flowers. Flowers green, pentamerous, 1-1.5 mm long, sessile, perigyn¬ous, densey covered with short, stiff, spreading hairs, perigynous zone subglabrous to almost glabrous. Sepals 5, equal or somewhat unequal in older flowers, c. 1 mm long, oblong, obtuse, covered with stiff, whitish spreading hairs, margins membranous. Petals 5, free, filiform, alternate with and shorter than sepals, c. 0.4 mm long. Stamens 3-5, antisepalous, filaments minute; anthers ovoid. Ovary ovoid-subglobose, papillose near the apex; style minute, bilobed with 2 minute stigmas divergent in fruit. Fruit papillose near the apex, scarcely equalling the persistent sepals. Seed minute, ovoid, brown.

Distribution: Belgium; France; Spain; Portugal; Italy; Switzerland; Austria; Germany; Czechoslovakia; Poland; Hungary; Yugoslavia; Greece; Turkey; Cyperus; Lebanon; Palestine; Iran; Afghanistan; India; Kashmir; Morocco; Algeria; Ethiopia.

Fl. Per.: September.

Herniaria hirsuta is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name hairy rupturewort. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, and it is known on other continents, including North America, as an introduced species. This is an annual herb with stems up to 20 cm (8 in) long usually growing prostrate along the ground. The small, fuzzy, pale green leaves are up to about a centimeter long and coat the stems. The inflorescences appear in the leaf axils. Each contains three to eight hairy green sepals and no petals. The fruit is a tiny bumpy utricle containing one seed.

This plant is used in Morocco as an herbal remedy for kidney stones.