304 MISC. PUBLICATION 423, U. S. DEPT. OF -AGRICULTURE 



inconspicuous; sepals and petals commonly 5; styles usually 3, some- 

 times partly united; fruit a dehiscent capsule. 



Other names for these plants are starwort and stitchweed. 



Key to the species 



1. Plant glandular-pubescent, at least in the inflorescence, perennial; petals 6 to 

 8 mm. long, about twice as long as the sepals, retuse or bifid (cleft not 

 more than half way to the base) ; flowering stems from creeping, often 

 tuberous-thickened rootstocks, sharply 4-angled; leaves lanceolate, 

 attenuate-acuminate, 3 cm. long or longer, closely sessile. 



1. S. JAMESIANA. 



1. Plants not glandular, or the pedicels obscurely so in S. media; petals not more 

 than 5 mm. long, not or scarcely surpassing the sepals, 2-parted (2). 

 2. Leaves distinctly petioled, at least the basal ones; plants annual (3). 



3. Stems procumbent, pubescent in lines; leaves mostly long-petioled, the 

 blades ovate; petioles ciliate; flowers axillary, solitary on long, soon 

 deflexed, puberulent pedicels; sepals pubescent, not shiny, broadly 

 lanceolate, not setose-tipped, not conspicuously scarious-margined. 



2. S. MEDIA. 



3. Stems erect or ascending, glabrous or sparsely pubescent below, not in 



lines; leaves (except the lowest) sessile, lanceolate; flowers in termi- 

 nal scarious-bracted cymes; sepals glabrous, shiny, narrowly lanceo- 

 late, setose-acuminate, conspicuously scarious-margined. 



3. S. NITENS. 

 2. Leaves all sessile or subsessile; pedicels elongate, filiform (4). 



4. Petals none or rudimentary; plant annual; leaf blades thin, lanceolate to 



elliptic-oblong; flowers numerous in terminal, subumbellate inflores- 

 cences ; pedicels spreading or deflexed 4. S. umbellata. 



4. Petals equaling or surpassing the sepals; plant perennial, from creeping 

 rootstocks; leaf blades linear or linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 1 to 3 

 cm. long; flowers solitary or in very few-flowered cymes (5). 

 5. Leaves ascending, somewhat shiny, broadest near the base; pedicels 



erect or ascending, straight or nearly so 5. S. longipes. 



5. Leaves spreading, not shiny, broadest near the middle; pedicels becom- 

 ing wide-spreading or deflexed and usually curved. 



6. S. LONGIFOLIA. 



1. Stellaria jamesiana Torr., Ann. Lye. N. Y. 2: 169. 1827. 



Alsine jamesiana Heller, Cat. North Amer. PI. ed. 2, 4. 1900. 



Navajo and Coconino Counties, 7,000 to 8,500 feet, June and July. 

 Wyoming to Idaho, Texas, northern Arizona, and California. 



Represented in Arizona by a relatively narrow-leaved form (Alsine 

 curtisii Rydb.). 



2. Stellaria media (L.) Cyrillo, PL Char. Comm. 36. 1784. 



Alsine media L., Sp. PL, 272. 1753. 



Tempe, Maricopa County (McLellan and Stitt 690). A common 

 weed of lawns and gardens in many parts of the United States; 

 naturalized from Europe. 



3. Stellaria nitens Nutt. ex Torr. and Gray, Fl. North Amer. 1: 185. 



1838. 



Alsine nitens Greene, Bot. San Francisco Bay 33. 1894. 



Gila, Pinal, Maricopa, and Pima Counties, 1,500 to 3,000 feet, 

 February and March. Montana to British Columbia, south to 

 Arizona and California. 



