Arenaria stricta Michx.

  • Authority

    Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

  • Family

    Caryophyllaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Arenaria stricta Michx.

  • Description

    Species Description - Diffuse annual or perennial, glabrous or sometimes hairy, commonly with numerous short sterile shoots on prostrate branches; stems 1–4 dm, decumbent or erect, leafy for one-third to two-thirds their length, usually with short, leafy, fascicle-like sterile axillary shoots; primary lvs 8–30 mm, subulate-setaceous, somewhat involute, 3-nerved; infl open, often extending to the middle of the stem; pedicels slender, 5–20 mm; sep 3.5–6.5 mm, broadly lanceolate, acute, scarious-margined, (1)3- nerved; pet 5–8 mm, entire; fr equaling or a little longer than the sep, the 3 valves dehiscent to the middle or beyond; seed 0.8–1.5 mm, brown-black, low-tuberculate; 2n=22–30. Rocky or gravelly, often calcareous soil. (Minuartia s.) Var. stricta, perennial or annual, mostly lax and diffuse, the lvs mostly 1.5–3 cm and the stem leafy to above the middle, the pet usually longer than the sep, is common and variable in our range, from s. Ont. and N.Y. to Minn., s. to Va. and Ark. June–July. Var. litorea (Fernald) B. Boivin, often cespitose, leafy below the middle, the lvs 5–15 mm, and the pet equaling or mostly shorter than the sep, occurs from Nf. to Minn. and Alas. and B.C. July–Sept. (A. litorea; A. dawsonensis; Sabulina d.) Var. texana B. L. Rob., rigidly cespitose, usually only the lower third of the 5–20 cm stem leafy, the lvs 5–20 mm, the pet usually longer than the rigid sep, occurs from Mo. to Neb. and Tex., and reputedly e. to O.