Thursday, May 1, 2014

Common Chickweed

Common Chickweed
Stellaria media
Who doesn't have Common Chickweed growing in their yard?  It's a small, unobtrusive plant with five petals.  You're looking at the picture and counting ten, but there are actually five, deeply divided petals.  Notice also that the sepals (the green, leafy things underneath the flower petals) are longer than the flower petals.  This helps distinguish it from other chickweeds.

They say that chickweed is edible and I had it in a salad once, but it's so small that I would have to mow my whole yard to get enough for a meal.


The upper leaves have no stems. The lower leaves have very short stems.
The plant is short and hides in the grass in lawns

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