Cerastium glomeratum

Cerastium glomeratum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Caryophyllaceae
Genus:	Cerastium
Species:	C. glomeratum
Binomial name
	Cerastium glomeratum; Thuill.

Cerastium glomeratum is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names sticky mouse-ear chickweed and clammy chickweed. It is probably native to Eurasia but it is known on most continents as an introduced species. It grows in many types of habitat.

Description

This is an annual herb growing from a slender taproot. It produces a branched, hairy stem up to 40 or 45 centimeters tall. The hairy leaves are up to 2 or 3 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears as few as 3 or as many as 50 small flowers. The flower has five hairy green sepals which are occasionally red-tipped, and five white two-lobed petals which are a few millimeters long and generally shorter than the sepals. Some flowers lack petals. The fruit is a capsule less than a centimeter long which is tipped with ten tiny teeth.

Uses

The leaves and shoots were used as a wild food in ancient China.^[1]

References

^ Read. B.E. (1977) Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. Southern Materials Centre, Taipei.

External links

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[1] Read. B.E. (1977) Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. Southern Materials Centre, Taipei.

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