Sherardia arvensis L.
field madder
Annual herb with diffuse or mat-forming habit; roots slender, reddish. Stems prostrate or decumbent; angles scabrid. Lvs and leaflike stipules (1.5)-2-15 × (0.8)-1-4 mm, narrow- to broad-elliptic, hairy; margins and midrib beneath scabrid; apex mucronate or acuminate. Involucral bracts similar to lvs but sometimes almost lanceolate. Calyx lobes c. 0.5 mm long, lanceolate-ovate. Corolla 2-4.5 mm diam.; tube slender, > lobes, whitish; limb cross-shaped; lobes c. 2 mm long, narrow-elliptic, usually mauve, occasionally white. Mericarps 1.5-2 mm long excluding persistent calyx, obovoid or ellipsoid, with appressed hairs.
N.; S.; K., Ch.: locally common to abundant.
Europe, Mediterranean, N. Africa, W. Asia 1867
Especially poor, depleted or short pastures and lawns, and waste places, also cultivated land, roadside banks, streamsides and tussock grasslands to c. 500 m.
FL Jan-Dec.
