2. Paronychia fastigiata (Raf.) Fernald var. fastigiata (hairy nailwort, forked chickweed)

Anychia fastigiata Raf.

P. fastigiata var. paleacea Fernald

Map 1473, Pl. 344 g–i

Plants annual. Stems 4–30 cm long, erect, many-branched, sparsely to moderately pubescent with minute, spreading to downward-curved hairs, these mostly on one side of the stem. Stipules 0.5–4.5 mm long, narrowly triangular to lanceolate, long-tapered to a sharply pointed, entire or sometimes fringed tip. Leaf blades 0.2–2.5 cm long, narrowly oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic, tapered at the base, angled to a bluntly pointed tip to rounded or abruptly tapered to a minute, sharp point. Flowers in open to dense terminal clusters (occasionally appearing solitary and axillary). Sepals 0.8–1.2 mm long, narrowly oblong, usually rounded at the tip, appearing hooded, with a dorsal extension behind the tip into a minute, conical to triangular, blunt point, green to brown, nerveless, the margins thin and white or translucent. Staminodes absent. Styles 2, distinct. Fruits 0.7–1.0 mm long, the surface with minute papillae. Seed 0.7–0.9 mm wide, brown. 2n=32, 36. May–October.

Scattered nearly throughout the state (eastern U.S. west to Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; Canada). Bottomland forests, mesic to dry upland forests, bottomland and upland prairies, banks of streams and rivers, ledges and tops of bluffs, and glades; also railroads and roadsides.

Some botanists have separated P. fastigiata into as many as four varieties differing in details of the bracts, sepals, and styles. Steyermark (1963) accepted two of these as more or less co-occurring in Missouri: var. paleacea (with stipular bracts as long as or longer than the sepals) and var. fastigiata (with somewhat shorter bracts). Examination of Missouri specimens reveals that too many intermediates exist to justify the segregation of var. paleacea. However, the validity of the other named variants, which occur to the east of Missouri, requires further study.