PINK FAMILY 
CARYOPHYLLACEAE 
COMMON CHICKWEED. WINTERWEED 
Stellaria media (L.) Cyrill 
The large Pink family has representatives in nearly 
every part of the world. Some of them are valuable 
ornamental plants and others are troublesome weeds. 
The true Pinks have various types of 
outgrowths or crowns on the petals 
at the junction of claw and limb. 
The Common Chickweed is found 
almost everywhere throughout the north- 
ern hemisphere, not only in woods and 
meadows and waste places but in cultivated 
fields, gardens and lawns as well. It is 
sometimes called Winterweed because it 
blooms nearly the whole year round. 
Sprigs of it are fed to pet canaries and 
young chickens but the plant is usually a 
nuisance in dooryard and garden. 
This is a steady-growing and much- 
branched plant. Its stems, 3-15 inches 
long, are hardly strong enough to stand 
erect and so they sprawl over the ground 
or lean upon other plants. They are 
smooth except for a line of short soft hairs 
along 1 side, and sometimes the petioles of 
the lower leaves are hairy. 
The flowers are small, not much more than one-quarter inch 
across. They open fully only on sunny days. The calyx is 5-lobed 
and its green velvety sepals are somewhat longer than the white 
petals. There appear to be Io petals but the true number is 5, 
for each is so deeply notched that it looks like a pair. The pistil 
has 3 styles and it matures into a small many-sided capsule 
full of seeds. 
And here be four-o’clocks, just opening wide 
Their many colored petals to the sun, 
As glad to live as if the evening dun 
Were far away, and morning had not died! 
Four-o’clocks—JuLia C. R. Dorr 
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