Long-leaved Starwort
Stellaria longifolia
Synonym: Stellaria longifolia var. longifolia
Long-leaf starwort is a perennial wildflower with spreading to ascending 4-angled stems up to 60 cm long. The stems are mostly glabrous and often branched. It is typically found growing amongst meadow grasses and thus, except for the flowers, difficult to see. The leaves are linear-lanceolate to linear in shape with acute tips. The bases of the leaves are sessile. Individual leaves measure from 1.5-3.5 cm long and are rarely more than 4 mm wide. The underside of the leaf margins appear roughened and bumpy when viewed with a 30x lens.
The inflorescence is a diffuse, leafy-bracteate cyme of several to many white flowers. The slender flower pedicels range from 5-20 mm long. The sepals are 3-4 mm long and narrowly elliptic-lanceolate in shape with pointed tips and 3 nerves. The 5 petals are 3-4 mm long and about equal to or slightly exceed the sepals in length and each is deeply cleft so that the flower appears to have 10 narrow petals.
Long-leaf starwort may be found in wet meadows, along grassy streambanks, in ditches, and on poorly drained soils.
Long-leaf starwort may be found from Alaska south to California and east to Newfoundland, New Mexico, and South Carolina.
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