Mouse-ear chickweed
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated February 2018.
Scientific name: Cerastium fontanum Baumg. ssp. vulgare (Hartm.) Greuter & Burdet; old C. vulgatum L.
Common name(s): mouse-ear chickweed, mouse-eared chickweed, common mouse-ear chickweed, big chickweed, large mouseear, common mouse-ear
Links: USDA PLANTS Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- growth habit
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- flowering, early June
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- petals cleft half their length or less
Description:
– perennial, occasionally annual/biennial
– generally flowers June and July in ME
– highly variable and may be confused with the highly variable C. strictum; see left sidebar on Go Botany webpage
Habitat:
-disturbed land
-grasslands
-moist forests
-wetlands
natural History:
-native to Europe
Source(s):
Heinrich, B. 1976. Flowering phenologies: Bog, woodland, and disturbed habitats. Ecology. 57(5):890-899.
Hartman, Ronald L, and Richard K Rabeler. “Cerastium Fontanum Subsp. Vulgare.” Epson EFlora: Taxon Page, The Jepson Herbarium, ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=49818.