Stellaria holostea, SE: Buskstjärnblomma, DE: Große Sternmiere,
NL: Grote muur, UK: Greater Stitchwort, Addersmeat

Scientific name:  Stellaria holostea L.
Synonym name:  Alsine holostea (L.) Britton
Swedish name:  Buskstjärnblomma
German name:  Große Sternmiere
Nederlandse naam:   Grote muur
English name:  Greater Stitchwort, Addersmeat
Plant Family:  Caryophyllaceae, Nejlikväxter

Vilda blommor i Sverige, Ragunda. Jamtland, Flowers of Sweden

Life form:  Perennial
Stems:  To 50cm long (20-30cm tall), decumbent, rooting at lower nodes, herbaceous, somewhat succulent, mostly glabrous but with a single longitudinal line of pubescence. Pubescence hirsute to tomentose.
Leaves:  Opposite, long, narrow
Flowers:  Five deeply-notched white petals and five shorter green sepals
Flowering Period:  May, June
Fruit:  Capsules to +6mm long, 4mm wide, glabrous, with +/-15 seeds. Seeds 1mm in diameter, tuberculate, rotund.
Habitat:  Forests and thickets

Flowers in Sweden, Pictures, Travel


Derivation of the botanical name:
Stellaria, from the Latin stella for "star" because of the star-like shape of the flowers.
holostea, holos for "whole", eus for "like".
  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 – 1934), an American botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York.