Cerastium semidecandrum L.
little mouse-ear chickweed
Annual, with all branches reproductive. Stems ascending to erect, sometimes prostrate, (2)-5-15 cm long, with glandular and eglandular hairs. Lvs ovate to oblong to narrow-obovate, (2)-5-10-(20) × (1)-2-5-(10) mm, the lower petiolate, the upper sessile, with eglandular hairs. Infl. ± compact; pedicels usually > sepals at fruiting, with glandular and eglandular hairs. Bracts narrow-ovate with broad scarious margins especially at apex, green part glandular- and eglandular-hairy. Sepals 3-5 mm long, with broad scarious margins especially at apex and glandular and eglandular hairs not overtopping the slightly reflexed apex. Petals < than sepals. Styles 0.5 mm long. Capsule cylindric, slightly curved, up to 11/2× length of calyx. Seeds 0.4 mm long, very finely tuberculate.
N.: Volcanic Plateau (Karioi); S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago.
Europe, Asia Minor 1968
Tussock grassland, stony and sandy waste land, roadsides, depleted pasture, riverbeds, coastal sand.
FL (Sep)-Oct-Nov-(Dec) FT Oct-Dec-(Mar).
Little mouse-ear chickweed is usually a very small plant of dry sites and its glandular infls often have small pieces of soil, dust and insects adhering to them. The mixture of glandular and eglandular sepal hairs that do not overtop the sepal apex distinguishes it from other Cerastium spp. in N.Z.
