About Stellaria longipes subsp. longipes
Stellaria longipes is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, commonly known as longstalk starwort and Goldie's starwort. This species has a circumpolar distribution, found across the northernmost latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a perennial herb that grows in a wide range of habitat types, including tundra, taiga, and many more southern areas with subalpine and alpine climates. Stellaria longipes is extremely variable in morphology, with its form depending on both genetic makeup and environmental conditions, and it also has a widely varying number of chromosomes. In general, it is a rhizomatous perennial herb that forms mats or clumps, or grows upright. Its stems may be short and simple, or sprawling and highly branched. Its linear to lance-shaped leaves are usually 1 to 4 centimeters long and arranged oppositely in pairs. The inflorescence bears one or more flowers, each on a short pedicel. Each flower has five pointed green sepals, each a few millimeters long, and five white petals that are each divided into two lobes. The division is sometimes shallow, but is often deep enough that the flower appears to have ten petals. The plant is gynodioecious: some flowers have functional male and female reproductive parts, while other flowers are only female. There are two accepted subtaxa of Stellaria longipes. The rarer subtaxon, subsp. arenicola, is restricted to the sand dunes adjacent to Lake Athabasca in central Canada. The other accepted subtaxon is Stellaria longipes subsp. longipes.
