Cerastium

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Read about Cerastium in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Cerastium (Greek for horn, alluding to the shape of the pod). Caryophyllaceae. Mouse-ear Chick-Weed. Decumbent annuals or perennials, used in rockeries or for bedding and borders.

Pubescent or hirsute herbs, rarely glaucous: lvs. small, opposite, entire: fls. white, borne in terminal, dichotomous cymes; sepals 5, rarely 4; petals as many, emarginate or 2-cleft; stamens 10, rarely fewer; styles 5, rarely 4 or 3, opposite the sepals: caps, cylindric, often curved, dehiscing at the top by 10, rarely 8, teeth.—About 100 species of world-wide distribution according to the largest delimitation of the genus; by some authorities reduced to 40 or 50 species.

Cerastiums are of easy culture in ordinary garden soil. They are propagated by divisions or by cuttings taken after flowering and planted in a shady place. They are more or less used for edgings and in rockeries.


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Cerastium
Cerastium arvense
Cerastium arvense
Plant Info
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Genus: Cerastium
L.

Species
Cerastium arcticum

Cerastium arvense
Cerastium biebersteinii
Cerastium fontanum
Cerastium glomeratum
Cerastium nigrescens
Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer)
et al.

Cerastium (Mouse-ear chickweed) is a genus of plant belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae.

Cerastium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora chalcogrammella (which feeds exclusively on Cerastium arvense) and Coleophora striatipennella (which has been recorded on Cerastium fontanum).

External links

Cerastium arvense

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