''Cerastium glomeratum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

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 An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

. It grows in many types of habitat. The blooming period is February, March, April, and May.

Description

This is an annual herb growing from a slender

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...

. It produces a branched stem up to 45 centimeters tall, with abundant glandular and non-glandular hairs. The leaves are opposite, hairy, up to 2 cm long, and the basal ones typically die back before flowering. The bracts are green, hairy and generally similar to the leaves. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

bears as few as 3 or as many as 50 small, dioecious flowers arranged in a cyme and borne on very short pedicels. Each flower has 5 hairy green

sepals A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

which are occasionally red-tipped, and 5 white bifid petals which are a few millimeters long and generally about the same length as the sepals. The fruit is a capsule less than a centimeter long which is tipped with ten tiny teeth.Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012 ''Webb's An Irish Flora.'' Cork University Press.

Identification

This plant usually has abundant glandular hairs towards the top of the stem and on the sepals. Because it is an annual, plants are easily uprooted and every stem develops flowers. The flowers are also borne on very short pedicels (stalks), so they tend to occur in tight clusters.

Taxonomy

It was named by Jean Louis Thuillier in his "Flore des Environs de Paris" (1800). Many synonyms have been coined over the years, which are listed in th
Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular plants of the World
Many forms, varieties and subspecies have also been named, but none is now widely accepted. It is not known to hybridise with any other species. Its chromosome number is 2n=72.

Habitat

Frequent in waste places, walls, banks and arable land.

Uses

The leaves and shoots were used as a wild food in ancient China. In Nepal, the juice of this plant was applied to the forehead to relieve headaches. The juice could also be dropped into the nostrils to treat nosebleeds. The leaves can also be boiled and eaten.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants Profile
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Flora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
glomeratum Flora of Europe Flora of North Africa Flora of temperate Asia Flora of tropical Asia {{Caryophyllaceae-stub