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  4. Stellaria alsine

Stellaria alsine

Flowers of Stellaria alsine.<br>Photographer: Trevor James, Date taken: 08/12/2006, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Plant of Stellaria alsine.<br>Photographer: Trevor James, Date taken: 27/06/2013, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Swampy.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 16/11/2013, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Swampy.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 16/11/2013, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Common name

bog stitchwort

Family

Caryophyllaceae

Authority

Stellaria alsine Grimm

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.

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