Smooth Rupturewort

Sinai.

Europe, north Africa, Sinai, east Mediterranean region.

Stony wadis.

Perennial.

Historical collections are known also from Maine (1903) and New York (1943).

Herniaria glabra, variable in habit, vestiture, flower size, and fruit length (H. W. Pugsley 1930), has been reported to hybridize naturally with H. hirsuta (M. N. Chaudhri 1968). It makes a dense mat of foliage, being occasionally planted as a ground or grave cover.

Chaudhri (Meded. Bot. Mus. Herb. Rijks Univ. Utrecht 285: 315--320. 1968) divided this rather variable species into four varieties based on minor differences in flower size and indumentum.

Plants annual, biennial, or perennial, light to yellowish green, glabrous or puberulent, some-times with woody caudex. Stems spreading to prostrate, 5-35 cm. Leaves opposite, or distalmost alternate; stipules 0.5-1.5 mm; blade obovate-elliptic to sub-orbiculate, 3-7(-10) mm, glabrous or sometimes short-ciliate. Inflorescences mostly leaf-opposed, 6-10-flowered. Flowers 1-1.5 (-1.8) mm, usually glabrous or sometimes short-ciliate; calyx not burlike; sepals equal or sometimes unequal, 0.5-0.6 mm, glabrous; stamens 5; staminodes petaloid, 0.5 mm; styles connate in proximal 1/ 3. Utricles 1-1.3 mm, usually longer than sepals. 2n = 18, 36, 72 (Europe), 54 (Africa).

Plants annual or perennial, yellowish green. Stems spreading, 5--18(--35) cm, glabrous or thinly pilose. Leaf blade elliptic-obovate, 3--7 × 1--3 mm, glabrous, base cuneate, apex obtuse. Glomerules leaf-opposed, 6--10-flowered. Flowers 5-merous, 1.2--1.5(--1.7) mm. Sepals ovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.5 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Stamens 5, short. Style 0.2--0.3 mm; stigma lobes nearly sessile. Achene ovoid, longer than sepals. Seed flat-orbicular, ca. 0.5 mm in diam. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug--Sep.

introduced; Ont., Que.; Md., Mich., N.J., Pa., Utah; Europe; Asia (Turkey); introduced elsewhere.

W Sichuan, N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Mongolia, Russia, Uzbekistan; Europe].

Flowering spring-summer.

Roadsides, dry or rocky, sandy places; 0-1200m.

Meadows, mires, hillsides, ravines; 900--2400 m.

Herniaria glabra, the smooth rupturewort, is a plant of the family Caryophyllaceae, and grows in North America and Europe. It contains herniarin, a methoxy analog of umbelliferone.