Plants annual or perennial, forming mats, rhizomatous. Stems creeping, much-branched, rooting at lower nodes, 4-angled, 5–30 cm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent on 2 sides. Leaves sessile to subsessile; blade elliptic to obovate, 0.3–1.5 cm × 1–6 mm, base cuneate to spatulate, margins entire, apex obtuse to ± acute, tip blunt, glabrous or pubescent at base and stem nodes. Inflorescences with flowers solitary, axillary in distal nodes; bracts absent. Pedicels spreading, becoming reflexed in fruit, 2–10 mm, glandular-pubescent. Flowers 3–4 mm diam.; sepals 4–5, herbaceous with midrib, ovatelanceolate, 2.5–3 mm, margins convex, membranous, apex obtuse, glandular-pubescent; petals 4–5, ca. 3 mm, equaling sepals; stamens 4–5; styles 3–4, ascending. Capsules broadly ovoid, ca. 4.5 mm, longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6–8 valves; carpophore absent. Seeds ca. 20, brown, round, ca. 1 mm diam., prominently papillate; papillae obtuse, taller than broad. 2n = 34.

Phenology: Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat: Short grass in ditches and marshy areas
Elevation: less than 100 m

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Introduced; La., Tex., South America (Argentina), South America (Brazil), South America (Paraguay)

Discussion

Selected References

Brown, L. E. and S. J. Marcus. 1998. Notes on the flora of Texas with additions and other significant records. Sida 18: 315–324.

Landry, G. P., W. D. Reese, and C. M. Allen. 1988. Stellaria parva Pederson new to North America. Phytologia 64: 497.

Lower Taxa

None.