CHICKWEED FAMILY 



137 



Family 43. CARYOPHYLLACEAE. 

 Chickweed Family. 



Annual or perennial herbs, rarely woody at base, with nodose stems and opposite, 

 entire leaves. Flowers regular, perfect or rarely unisexual. Sepals 4 or 5, distinct or 

 united into a tube. Petals as many as sepals, or rarely fewer or none, often toothed 

 or lobed. Stamens alternating with the petals and usually of the same number, their 

 filaments sometimes cohering at the base. Styles 2-5, distinct or united below; 

 ovary free from the calyx, 1 -celled or incompletely 2-5-celled at the base; placentae 

 axial; ovules usually numerous. Fruit a many-seeded capsule, opening by 2-5 

 entire or bifid valves. Seeds small ; embryo straight or curved ; endosperm present. 



A family of about 55 genera and 1,300 species, most abundant in the temperate regions. 



Calyx with sepals distinct, or united only at the base. 

 Stipules wanting. (Alsineae) 



Plants not fleshy; disk of the flower wanting or inconspicuous. 

 Petals 2-cleft or -parted, rarely none. 



Capsule ovoid or oblong, dehiscent nearly or quite to the base by valves. 

 Capsule cylindric, often curved, dehiscent by short apical teeth. 

 Petals entire or merely emarginate, rarely none. 

 Capsule cylindric. 

 Capsule ovoid or oblong. 



Styles as many as the sepals and alternate with them. 

 Styles fewer than the sepals. 

 Seeds not strophiolate. 

 Seeds strophiolate. 

 Plants fleshy, maritime; disk conspicuous, 8-10-lobed. 

 Stipules present, scarious. 



Styles distinct to the base. (Sperguleae) 

 Styles and capsule valves 5. 

 Styles and capsule valves 3. 

 Styles united below, or sometimes wanting. (Polycarpeae) 

 Leaves flat, oblong or obovate. 

 Leaves subulate or setaceous. 

 Calyx with a well-marked tube, 5-toothed or -cleft; fruit a several- to many-seeded capsule. 

 Styles more than 2. 



Styles 5, alternate with the foliaceous calyx-teeth. 

 Styles 3-5, when 5 opposite the short calyx-teeth. 



Capsule dehiscent by 6, rarely 3, apical teeth; styles 3, rarely 4 or 5. 

 Capsule dehiscent by 10 or sometimes 5 apical teeth; styles 5. 

 Styles 2. 



Flowers showy, with well-developed blades. 

 Petals unappendaged. 



Calyx strongly 5-angled, not bracteolate. 

 Calyx cylindric or nearly so, subtended by bractlets. 

 Petals with scale-like appendages at the base of the blades. 

 Flowers small, with minute blades; calyx-tube and capsule narrowly cylindric. 



1. Stellaria. 



2. Cerastium. 



3. Holosteum. 



4. Sagina. 



5. Arenaria. 



6. Moehringia. 



7. Honkenya. 



8. Spergula. 



9. Spergularia. 



10. Polycarpon. 



11. Loeflingia. 

 (Sileneae) 



12. Agrostemma. 



13. Silene. 



14. Lychnis. 



15. Vaccaria. 



16. Dianthus. 



17. Saponaria. 



18. Velezia. 



1. STELLARIA L. Sp. PI. 421. 1753. 



Low, often diffusely branching annuals or perennials with cymose, white flowers. 

 Sepals usually 5. Petals of the same number as the sepals or rarely none, 2-cleft or 

 -parted. Stamens 10 or less, hypogynous. Ovary 1-celled, many-ovuled. Styles 3, or 

 rarely 4 or 5, usually opposite the sepals. Capsule globose to oblong, dehiscent by twice 

 as many valves as styles. Seeds smooth or roughened. [Name Latin, meaning star, in 

 reference to the star-shaped flower.] 



A genus of about 100 species of wide distribution. Type species, Stellaria Holostea L. 



Annuals; lowest leaves petioled. 

 Leaves ovate. 



Stems pubescent with a longitudinal line of hairs; leaves glabrous. 1. 



Stems and leaves pubescent throughout. 9. 



Leaves, at least the upper, linear-lanceolate; stems glabrous except at base, filiform. 2. 

 Perennials; leaves all sessile or subpetiolate in nos. 8 and 9. 

 Petals deeply 2-parted; plants not glandular. 

 Bracts small and scarious. 



Petals minute or absent; flowers umbellate. 3. 5". umbellata. 



Petals longer than the sepals; flowers cymose. 



Pedicels spreading or deflexed; cymes diffuse. 



Seeds smooth; leaves linear. 4. 5". longifolia. 



Seeds rough; leaves lanceolate. 5. S. graminea. 



S. media. 



S. washingtoniana. 



S. nitens. 



Pedicels erect; cymes few-flowered; seed smooth. 



6. S". longipes. 



