Common Chickweed (Invasive Exotic Plants of North Carolina)

Common Chickweed

Stellaria media

Summary ⁹

Stellaria media, chickweed, is a cool-season annual plant native to Europe, which is often eaten by chickens. It is sometimes called common chickweed to distinguish it from other plants called chickweed. Other common names include chickenwort, craches, maruns, winterweed. The plant germinates in fall or late winter, then forms large mats of foliage. Flowers are small and white, followed quickly by the seed pods. This plant flowers and sets seed at the same time.

Comments ¹⁰

Stellaria media, now a cosmopolitan weed, is a very polymorphic species, varying in size, habit, pubescence, petal length, stamen number, and seed size and surface detail.

The Stellaria media complex consists of three very similar and closely related species, S. media, S. neglecta, and S. pallida. They can almost always be distinguished by the characters given in the key, but in a few doubtful cases a chromosome count is desirable for positive identification. The problem arises from the considerable phenotypic variation which is displayed by S. media, and to a lesser extent by S. pallida. There is no evidence for gene exchange between these species. Stellaria pallida is autogamous and sometimes cleistogamous; S. media is both autogamous and occasionally cross-pollinated by flies; S. neglecta is usually cross-pollinated by flies but is self-compatible.

Description ¹¹

Common chickweed is a very common weed (3). It is extremely variable in its appearance, but generally it has a very slender tap root and greatly branching leafy stems, which lie along the ground (2). The lower leaves vary in size from 3 to 20 mm in length, they are oval in shape and have long stalks; the upper leaves tend to be larger (up to 25 mm in length) and lack stalks. Many small, white flowers are produced; the stamens have reddish-violet anthers (2).

Biology ¹²

Chickweed occurs either as an annual species or as a short-lived perennial (3), and produces several generations a year, each one flowering after just 5 weeks of growth (1). It can remain green and often in flower throughout winter (4). The flowers are visited by many small flies and bees (2). A single plant may produce around 2,500 reddish-brown seeds, which can remain viable in the soil for 25-40 years (1). Common chickweeds is highly prized as a food for poultry and cage-birds, and even for humans in small quantities as a vegetable of stir-fries and salads (4).

Sources and Credits

(c) Balázs Grill, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbalage/3423262101/
(c) Bastiaan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/84474308@N00/3386022896
(c) Biopix, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/photos/JCS-Stellaria-media-65510.JPG
(c) David Illig, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5182/5638555474_7408774f0f_o.jpg
Jan Ševčík, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/90897.jpg
(c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/PhotosMedium/JCS%20Stellaria%20media%2047157.JPG
(c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.biopix.com/PhotosMedium/JCS%20Stellaria%20media%2047156.JPG
(c) Steven J. Baskauf, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/17932
Adapted by Kate Wagner from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellaria_media
(c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19784654
(c) Wildscreen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/2612967
(c) Wildscreen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/5671118

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