(Last Modified On 1/28/2013)
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(Last Modified On 1/28/2013)
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Genus
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STELLARIA L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. P1. 421. 1753.
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Synonym
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Myosoton Moench. Meth. 225. 1794. Spergulastrum Michx. Fl. Am. Bor. 1:275. 1803. In part. Micropetalon Pers. Syn. 1:509. 1805. Alsinella Swartz, Summa Veg. :Scand. 17. 1814. In part. Larbrea St. Hilaire, in Mem. Mus. Par. 2:287. 1815. Malachiumn Fries, Fl. Halland. 77. 1817. Ballarion Raf. in Am. Month. Mag. 266. 1818. Leucostemma Benth. in Wall. Cat. n. 642. 1828. Krascheninikovia Turcz. ex Bess. in Flora 171 Beibl.: 9. 1834. Adenonema Bunge, in Mem. Sav. Etr. Petersb. 2:448. 1836. Schizotechium Reichb. Nom. 205. 1841. Hylebia Fourr. in Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon n. s. 16:347. 1868. Myosanthus Fourr. loc. cit. n. s. 16:348. 1868.
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Description
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Annual or perennial herbs, often much branched and clambering, the stems somewhat resilient and occasionally suffruticose below. Leaves opposite, petiolate or sessile and somewhat perfoliate, exstipulate, in Central America rather broad and membranaceous. Flowers in few-flowered dichasial cymes or less frequently solitary in the axils of slightly reduced leaves. Sepals 4-5, not connate. Petals 4-5, rarely absent, white, deeply 2-cleft. Stamens 4-10; anthers versatile, 2-celled, the flattened hypogynous filaments connate below forming a brief glandular disk. Ovary superior, carpels 2-4, with as many filiform styles free to the base; ovules 4-many, camnpylotropous on basal, central or free central placentae. Capsule deeply or shallowly dehiscing into as many 2-cleft or rarely entire valves as there are styles; seeds 4-many, cochleate, smooth or tuberculate, estrophiolate, the embryo curved about the perisperm.
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Habit
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herbs
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Distribution
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Composed of about a hundred species, this weedy genus is nearly cosmopolitan
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Note
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most caryophyllaceous genera, largely restricted to high altitudes in the tropics. Three of the six Central American species are found in Panama.
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Key
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a. Flowers solitary in the axils or in few-flowered leafy cyrnes; sepals anid petals 5; stamens 8-10; seeds numerous; pedicels not glandular-villous; leaves ovate or cordate. b. Leaves cordate; petals 8-10 mm. long, 1.5-2 times as long as tl-,e sepals; spines on the seeds usually broader than long - - 1. S. NEMORUM bb. Leaves ovate; petals 3-6 mm. long, 1-1.5 times as long as the sepals; spines on the seeds usually longer than broad. - . 2. S. OVATA aa. Flowers many in dichasial cymes with minute bracts; sepals and petals 4; stamens 4-6 (-8); seeds 4-6; pedicels glandular-villous, leaves cordate. 3. S. IRAZUENSIS
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