Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Cerastium balearicum

Common name

Lesser Mouse-ear Chickweed, Balearic Mouse-ear Chickweed

Family

Caryophyllaceae

Where found

Lawns and disturbed sites. Mainly tablelands, ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park. Rarely elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.23 m high, hairy with glandular and simple hairs. Leaves 0.2–1.2 cm long, 1–7 mm wide; in a basal rosette and opposite each other on the stems. Rosette leaves stalked, stem leaves stalkless. Flowers with 4–5 notched white petals. Sepals 2.5–5 mm long, petals more or less half the sepal length or less, entire or notched. 5 stamens. Flowers in open few-flowered clusters. Flowers Aug.–Nov. Seed case 3.5–6.5 mm long, usually slightly longer than the sepals.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cerastium~balearicum 
(accessed 7 January, 2021)