''Cerastium utriense'' is a species of

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

flowering plant in the genus ''

Cerastium ''Cerastium'' is a genus of annual, winter annual, or perennial plants belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae. They are commonly called mouse-ear chickweed. Species are found nearly worldwide but the greatest concentration is in the northern tem ...

'', belonging to 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 ...

. It was first described in 1988.Barberis G. 1988
''Cerastium utriense'' sp. nov. (Caryophyllaceae) nell'Appennino ligure-piemontese.
''Webbia'' 42(2): 153-160. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Description

''Cerastium utriense'' is a mat-forming or clumpy hemicryptophyte, reaching in height, with a maximum of about . It is usually somewhat hairy in texture, with glabrous, linear to lance-shaped leaves a few centimeters long. The pubescent

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 ...

is usually a dense cluster of many flowers. The flower has five white, glabrous petals, each with two lobes, and five hairy

sepal 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 ...

s at the base. The flowering period is May through July. The fruit is a sub-cylindrical capsule up to 1.5 centimeters long containing several brown seeds. This species is quite similar to ''

Cerastium arvense ''Cerastium arvense'' is a species of flowering plant in the Caryophyllaceae, pink family known by the common names field mouse-ear and field chickweed. It is a widespread species, occurring throughout Europe and North America, as well as parts o ...

'', but it may be distinguished by the erect peduncles bearing the ripe fruits.

Distribution

This is an Italian endemic plant with a restricted distribution. It is limited to northwestern Italy, where it can be found in the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

and

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Habitat

This is a serpentine endemic,Marsili, S., et al. (2009)
Ecological studies on the serpentine endemic plant ''Cerastium utriense'' Barberis.
''Northeastern Naturalist'' 16, Special Issue 5: "Soil and Biota of Serpentine: A World View." Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Serpentine Ecology, 2009. 405-21. growing in

ultramafic Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...

outcrops and mountain scrublands. It occurs at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of above sea level.

References

utriense Endemic flora of Italy Plants described in 1988 {{Caryophyllaceae-stub