Stellaria
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2013) |
| Stellaria | |
|---|---|
| |
| Greater stitchwort, Stellaria holostea | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Caryophyllaceae |
| Genus: | Stellaria L. |
Stellaria is a genus of about 90 to 120 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort,[1] stitchwort and chickweed.
Description[]
Stellaria species are relatively small herbs with simple opposite leaves. It produces small flowers with 5 sepals and 5 white petals each usually deeply cleft, or none at all, all free. Stamens 10 or fewer.[2][3]
Uses[]
Some species, including Stellaria media which is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, are used as leaf vegetables, often raw in salads. This is a favored food of finches and many other seed-eating birds.
Chickweeds are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including angle shades, heart and dart, riband wave, setaceous Hebrew character and the Coleophora case-bearers C. coenosipennella (feeds exclusively on Stellaria species), C. lineolea (recorded on S. graminea), C. lithargyrinella (recorded on S. holostea), C. solitariella (feeds exclusively on S. holostea) and C. striatipennella.
Several closely related plants referred to as chickweed, but which lack the culinary properties of plants in the genus Stellaria, include members of the genus Cerastium, of similar appearance to Stellaria and also in the (Carophyllaceae).
Selected species[]
- Stellaria alsine – bog stitchwort
- Stellaria aquatica – water chickweed
- Stellaria borealis
- Stellaria calycantha
- Stellaria crassifolia
- Stellaria crassipes
- Stellaria crispa
- Stellaria flaccida – forest starwort
- Stellaria fontinalis
- Stellaria graminea – lesser stitchwort
- Stellaria holostea – greater stitchwort
- Stellaria humifusa – saltmarsh starwort
- (edible greens)[4]
- Stellaria littoralis
- Stellaria longifolia
- Stellaria longipes – long-stalk starwort
- Stellaria media – common chickweed
- Stellaria neglecta – greater chickweed
- Stellaria nemorum – wood stitchwort
- Stellaria nitens
- Stellaria obtusa
- Stellaria oxyphylla
- Stellaria pallida – lesser chickweed
- Stellaria palustris – marsh stitchwort
- Stellaria porsildii
- Stellaria pubera – star chickweed
- Stellaria pungens – prickly starwort
- Stellaria recurvata
- Stellaria umbellata
References[]
- ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Stellaria". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
- ^ Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012. Webb's An Irish Flora. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-185918-4783
- ^ Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. ISBN 0-521-04656-4
- ^ Elias, Thomas S.; Dykeman, Peter A. (2009) [1982]. Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods. New York: Sterling. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-4027-6715-9. OCLC 244766414.
- Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, ISBN 0-87842-359-1
External links[]
Media related to Stellaria at Wikimedia Commons
- Stellaria
- Caryophyllaceae genera
- Leaf vegetables
- Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus