Stellaria media (Common Chickweed) - Non-Native

3/24/19 Trans Preserve Trail, Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, 

Murrieta, SW Riverside County, CA 

 4/2/05 Eaton Canyon Natural Area, San Gabriel Mountains, Los Angeles County, CA

1/23/05 Gabrielino Trail, Lower Arroyo Seco (JPL to Oakwilde), San Gabriel Mountains,

Los Angeles County, CA

4/8/01 Eaton Canyon Natural Area

LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Common Chickweed

SPECIES: Stellaria media

FAMILY: Caryophyllaceae (Pink Family)

LIFE LIST DATE: 4/8/2001

LOCATION: Eaton Canyon Natural Area, San Gabriel Mountains, Los Angeles County, CA

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Treatment from The Jepson Manual (1993):

Annual but often over-wintering, prostrate to erect, 7–50 cm; taproot slender

Stem: internodes hairy in line

Leaves ± evenly spaced; blade 8–45 mm, ± ovate; margin ± smooth, ± flat, shiny, often ciliate near base

Inflorescence terminal or axillary, few-flowered, ± dense; bracts leafy; pedicels spreading to erect, in fruit curved to reflexed

Flower: sepals 5, 3–4.5 mm, > 6 mm in fruit, lanceolate to ovate, acute to obtuse, glabrous or ± hairy and glandular, margin ± widely scarious, ribs often 1 or 3 near base; petals 5, 0.7–0.9 X sepal

Seed 0.9–1.3 mm, reddish or purplish brown; surface papillate

Ecology: Oak woodlands, meadows, disturbed areas

Elevation: < 1300 m.  

Bioregional distribution: Northwestern California, High Cascade Range, c Sierra Nevada Foothills, Great Central Valley, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, South Coast, Channel Islands, Sonoran Desert 

Distribution outside California: native to sw Europe

Flowering time: Feb–Sep

Often a pernicious urban weed.