Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Stellaria angustifolia

Plant. Photographer Don Wood, SE Forests National Park

Flower and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Kosciuszko National Park

Plants. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer JR Hosking, Red Bob's Reserve south of Gunnedah

Line drawings. e. branchlet; f. leaves and bud. EM Mayfield, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Line drawings (subsp. tenella as Stellaria caespitosa). h. branchlet; i. flower. EM Mayfield, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

Swamp starwort

Family

Caryophyllaceae

Where found

Damp areas of eucalypt forests, and swamps and seasonally flooded sites, climbing over and through larger plants. Widespread. Rarely coastal.

subsp. angustifolia:  Widespread. No coastal records.

subsp. rotundisepala:   One record just west of Wadbilliga National Park.

subsp. tenella:  Kosciuszko National Park, the hills to the west, ACT,. and along the Murray River. Mainly west and south of the area covered by this key.

Notes

Weak trailing or mat-forming annual or perennial herb, with a slender taproot or horizontal rhizome. Stems hairless to rough, 10–70 cm long. Leaves opposite each other, 1–7 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, hairless, margins entire to toothed, tips blunt to pointed. Flowers white, with 5 mostly deeply cleft petals about the same length as the sepals. Sepals 2–10 mm long, with wide membranous margins. Flowers single or in 3-flowered clusters. Flowering: September–December

subsp. angustifolia:  Sepals 3-9 mm long, tips pointed or with a long drawn out point. Petals 3.5–9 mm long, about the same length as the sepals. Stamens producing pollen more than 3 mm long.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

subsp. rotundisepala:  Sepals 1.5–2.5 mm long, rounded to broad-elliptic, tips blunt and hooded, the hood sometimes thickened. Petals 2–3.9 mm long, longer than to twice as long as the sepals. Stamens producing pollen less than 3 mm long. Individual flower stalks more than 20 mm long.  Seeds covered with slender, pointed, prominent, warts.

subsp. tenella:  Sepals 1.5–2.5 mm long, narrow-oval to elliptic, tips blunt or pointed, and hooded, the hood never thickened. Petals 2–3.9 mm long, longer than to twice as long as the sepals. Stamens producing pollen less than 3 mm long. Individual flower stalks usually less than 20 mm long. Seeds covered with semi-inflated ridges.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Stellaria~angustifolia (accessed 7 February, 2021)