Tennessee chickweed

Stellaria pubera Michaux subsp. silvatica Béguinot, Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n. s. 17: 385. 1910, not S. silvatica Jessen 1879; Alsine tennesseensis (C. Mohr) Small; Stellaria pubera var. silvatica (Béguinot) Weatherby; S. silvatica (Béguinot) Maguire; S. tennesseensis (C. Mohr) Strausbaugh & Core

Plants perennial, rhizomatous. Stems erect, branched, square, 10-40 cm, with alternating lines of soft, spreading, flexuous, mainly eglandular hairs. Leaves petiolate (proximal) or subsessile (distal); blade elliptic, broadly lanceolate to ovate, 1-5 cm × 5-16 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, glabrous, sparsely pubescent adaxially on midrib. Inflorescences terminal, 3-7-flowered, cymes dichotomously branched; bracts foliaceous, lanceolate, 5-30 mm, soft, margins entire, distal ones ciliate on margins and adaxial vein. Pedicels erect, 5-45 mm, softly pubescent. Flowers 10-16 mm diam.; sepals 5, obscurely veined, narrowly triangular, (5-)7-10(-12) mm, margins narrow, membranous, apex acuminate, glabrous or with shortly ciliate margins; petals 5, equaling to slightly shorter than sepals; stamens 10; styles 3, ascending, ca. 2.5 mm. Capsules straw colored to pale brown, broadly ovoid, ca. 5 mm, shorter than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 3 valves; carpophore absent. Seeds brown, broadly reniform, ca. 2 mm diam., coarsely sulcate-papillate. 2n = 60.

Flowering spring. Rocky woods; 300-1000 m; Ala., Conn., Ind., Ky., Miss., N.C., Ohio, Pa., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Stellaria corei has been introduced in Connecticut. It is very similar to S. pubera but differs in its long-acuminate sepals.