About Stellaria alsine Grimm
Bog stitchwort (Stellaria alsine Grimm) is a rhizomatous perennial plant. It has smooth, four-angled stems that grow up to 40 cm (16 in) tall. Its leaves are arranged oppositely, are narrow, and reach up to 13 mm (0.51 in) in length. Leaf margins are untoothed, with a few marginal hairs present toward the base of each leaf. Flowers develop in cymes holding 1 to 5 flowers, which grow from the axils of the plant’s upper leaves. Each flower is roughly 6 mm (0.24 in) across, with 10 stamens, 3 stigmas, five lanceolate-triangular green sepals that have scarious margins, and five white petals that are slightly shorter than the sepals. Each petal is split into two lobes almost all the way to its base, and the two lobes angle away from each other, so that the lobes of each petal rest over parts of the adjacent sepals. Bog stitchwort is widespread across central and western Europe, but occurs less commonly in eastern and southern Europe, as well as the northern half of Scandinavia. It is considered native to eastern parts of North America, and an introduced species in the Pacific Northwest. It has also become naturalised in South America, in Asia (where it grows as a weed of rice fields), and on the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, where it acts as an aggressive invasive species. This plant grows in a range of wetland habitat types; in the British Isles, it is especially characteristic of areas that have been poached by cattle. It flowers in spring and early summer.
