5. Stellaria L., Sp. Pl. 421. 1753. Gen. Pl. ed. 5,193.1754; Boiss., Fl. Or.1:705.1867; Edgew. & Hook. f. in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 1:229.1874; Schischkin in Kom., Fl. URSS. 6:389.1936; McNeill in Notes, R. B. G. Edinb. 32 (3): 389-395.1973.
SHAHINA A. GHAZANFAR & YASIN J. NASIR
Annual or perennial, prostrate to erect herbs. Inflorescence of solitary or few to many flowered lax dichasial cymes. Sepals 4-5, free, with scarious margins. Petals 4-5, deeply bilobed, sometimes absent. Stamens (3-7)10. Styles 2-Capsule ovoid, splitting to the base by 4-6 valves. Seeds rather large, few; number, usually tuberculate.
A large genus with 120 cosmopolitan species. Represented in Pakistan by 11 species.
Species dubia
Stellaria webbiana (Benth. ex G. Don) Edgew. & Hook. f. in Fl. Brit. Ind. 1:230.1874.
Leucostemma webbianum Benth. ex G. Don, Gen. Syst. 1:449.1831.
Benth. ex C. Don, Gen. Syst. 1:449. 1831. Glabrous perennial. Stem shining, 10-15 cm. Leaves 10-12 x 0.75-1 mm, linear, apex acicular, sessile, 1-nerved, patent. Flowers 1, axillary. Pedicels slender. Sepals 5-6 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, margins broadly curious. Petals about twice the length of the sepals, bilobed to about the middle. Capsule as long as the sepals. Seeds with long processes at the back.
The distribution of the species according to Edgeworth & Hooker f. in Flora British India, 1:231. (1874) is from Kumaon to Sirmur. It has been reported from Kurram by Stewart, in the Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. p. 255. based on Aitchison’s list of Kurram Flora (in J.L.S. Bot. 18:37. (1880) sp. no. 793.) I have no specimens of the species from Kurram. The record needs confirmation.
