''Moehringia trinervia'', commonly known as apetalous sandwort or three-nerved sandwort, is a herbaceous plant of 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 ...

. A native of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

, it has been introduced into North America.

Description

Three-nerved sandwort is a small, slender, slightly

pubescent The adjective pubescent may describe: * people or animals undergoing puberty * plants that are hairy, covered in trichomes * insects that are covered in setae In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a ...

annual Annual may refer to: * Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook ** Literary annual * Annual plant * Annual report * Annual giving * Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco * Annuals (b ...

growing 10 – 40 cm tall.Rose F. 2006. ''The Wildflower Key''. Warne.Gibbons B, Brough P. 2008. ''Guide to Wildflowers of Britain and Northern Europe''. Philips The leaves are 6 – 25 mm longStreeter D, Hart-Davis C, Hardcastle A, Cole F, Harper L. 2009. Collins Wildflower Guide. HarperCollins. with three conspicuous longitudinal veins, although some leaves may have up to five veins. The flowers measure approximately 6 mm in diameter, with each bearing ten

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

and three styles. The petals are much longer than the three-veined sepals. The flowering period is April until July.

Habitat and distribution

The plant is widely distributed in Britain and much of mainland Europe, although it is absent from the

Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...

, Mull,

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, and

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. It favours fertile, well-drained soils in old lowland deciduous woodland and hedgerows, occurring up to 425 m. In Britain, it is considered an

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

indicator in southern England,

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

, and

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

.Niepołomice Forest found that three-nerved sandwort accumulated high amounts of heavy metals from pollutive industrial emissions in its tissues, especially of

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

. The conclusion was that a high level of heavy metal ions in three-nerved sandwort reflects levels of heavy metal pollutants in the soil and atmosphere, so that this plant may serve as a useful

bioindicator A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...

of environmental pollution with such metals.Godzik B. 1992. ''Moehringia trinervia'' (L.) Clairv. – a bioindicator of heavy metal pollution in the environment. ''Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae'' 61 (3-4): 409 – 417.

Similar species

Three nerved sandwort superficially resembles

chickweed ''Stellaria media'', chickweed, is an annual and perennial flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.Fernald, M. L. 1950. “Gray's Manual of Botany”. Eight Edition. American Book Company, New York, NY. 1632 pp. It is native to Euras ...

but is distinguished from the latter by its deep longitudinal leaf veins and undivided petals. .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q159024 Flora of Europe Flora of temperate Asia trinervia