Stellaria alsine
Common name
bog stitchwort
Family
Caryophyllaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
STEALS
Brief description
Small herb with thin straggling stems, often scrambling through taller vegetation, leaves lance-shaped, usually up to 12 mm long and 5 mm wide in pairs along the stem, with small groups of flowers up to 6 mm across, the green sepals longer than the white divided petals.
Distribution
Scattered throughout the North, South and Stewart Islands, with the exception of Northland and Auckland.
Habitat
Wide range of wet habitats including water body margins, wet pasture, seepages and roadsides.
Features
Perennial. Stems weak, ascending, 4-angled, glabrous, (8)-10-20-(50) cm long. Lvs green, sessile except on overwintering vegetative shoots, connate in pairs, lanceolate to oblanceolate to narrow-oblong, becoming linear-lanceolate above, tapering gradually to acute apex and glabrous or ciliate base, (5)-8-12-(25) × 2-5-(8) mm; margins usually closely undulate when dry; marginal vein ± distinct. Infl. axillary, cymose, lax, (1)-3-10-flowered. Bracts narrow-lanceolate, not keeled, scarious with green midrib, glabrous, 1.5-3 mm long. Pedicels slender, erecto-patent to patent, glabrous, 8-18 mm long. Sepals narrow-triangular, acute, 3-veined, (2)-2.5-3 mm long; margins scarious, glabrous. Petals < sepals. Stamens 10. Capsule narrow-ovoid, = sepals. Seeds red-brown, c. 0.5 mm long, with very short tubercles.
Similar taxa
Similar to stitchwort (S. graminea), but has shorter, relatively broader leaves, fewer flowered inflorescences and divided petals shorter than the sepals.
Flowering
September to May
Flower colours
Green, White
Fruiting
November to May
Life cycle
Seed dispersed by water and contaminated machinery.
Year naturalised
1899
Origin
Europe
Reason for introduction
Unknown, seed or soil contaminant
Control techniques
Not controlled in New Zealand.
Etymology
stellaria: Star flower
alsine: Like a chickweed, from the Greek alsos ‘grove’ often the habitat of chickweeds
Attribution
Prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA). Features description from Webb et al. (1988).
References and further reading
Webb, C.J.; Sykes, W.R.; Garnock-Jones, P.J. (1988). Flora of New Zealand Volume 4: Naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons. Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch.
Johnson PN, Brooke PA (1989). Wetland plants in New Zealand. DSIR Field Guide, DSIR Publishing, Wellington. 319pp.