Stellaria puber Michx.

Star Chickweed; Giant Chickweed; Great Chickweed

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Giant Chickweed is a native herbaceous perennial in the Pink family (Caryophyllaceae). It is found primarily in the northern half of Alabama. Giant Chickweed occurs in rich hardwood forests, in rocky woods, and on steep north-facing slopes. It is a perennial with a fibrous root system. Stems are erect, branched, 4-angled, green in color, with lines of soft hairs. Plants produced both fertile (with flowers) and vegetative shoots. Leaves are sessile, obovate to lanceolate in outline, entire, glabrous to slightly pubescent, with ciliate margins. Flowers are produced in terminal cymes. Each flower is on an erect peduncle with 2 elliptic to lanceolate bracts. Each flower has 5 ovate sepals with white scarious margins and 5 white petals that are divided nearly to their base, appearing as 10. The ovary is white in color with 3 styles at its apex. There are 10 stamens. The fruit is a capsule. As the fruit develops the pedicel curves downward and elongates.—A. Diamond

Originally published as "pubera" but apparently this is an "irregular one-ending adjectival epithet" and should be reduced to "puber". See Nicolson, Taxon 35: 326 (1986).

Native

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