''Spergularia media'' (

syn. The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...

''S. maritima'') 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 media sandspurry and greater sea-spurrey. It is native to Eurasia and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, where it grows in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas, including places with saline substrates, such as

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

es and beaches. It is known in many other parts of the world 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 ...

and a common roadside weed. In North America it is a "highway halophyte", often springing up at the margins of roads that are heavily salted in the winter.

Description

It is an annual or perennial herb producing a narrow stem lined with fleshy linear leaves. The small flowers are 8 to 12 mm across with five petals which are usually slightly longer than the

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.Parnell, P. and Curtis, T. 2012. ''Webb's An Irish Flora''. Cork University Press The five petals are oval white or pink-tinged. The tiny seeds have winged margins. It has 10

stamen 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 ...

s.Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg. 1968. ''Excursion Flora of the British Isles.'' Cambridge University Press.

References

External links

Jepson eFlora Description
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Photo gallery
media Flora of Europe Flora of North Africa Flora of temperate Asia Halophytes Taxa named by Carl Borivoj Presl {{Caryophyllaceae-stub