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”)

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.