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Lesser Stitchwort

Lesser Stitchwort

Stellaria graminea

Identify the Lesser Stitchwort from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Lesser Stitchwort is a slender, long-lived wildflower with many small, starry white blooms. It is common in open grassy places, field edges, roadsides and forest margins. Widespread across Europe and parts of Asia, it has also spread to North America.

Did you know?

  • The split petals make it look like the flower has ten petals, though there are only five.
  • In good spots it can form wide, dense patches.

About the species

Identification

Slender, branching plant 20–70 cm tall (sometimes up to 80 cm). Stems thin with four sharp edges, spreading or upright. Leaves in pairs, narrow and grass-like, 1.5–5 cm long. Flowers in loose, many-branched sprays; each flower small, with white petals 3.5–6 mm long, each split deeply so they look like ten. After flowering, a dry seed case opens in six teeth. Told from Greater Stitchwort by much smaller flowers and narrower leaves, and from Common Chickweed by its taller, wirier stems and airy clusters. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Open, light places such as meadows, verges, field margins, forest edges and shores; often on moderately rich soils. Common throughout Finland.

Sources

Photo: Kristian Peters -- Fabelfroh 07:15, 26 September 2006 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stellaria graminea detail.jpeg

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38055

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38055

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hein%C3%A4t%C3%A4htim%C3%B6

See also