Family: Caryophyllaceae,
Pink
Genus: Cerastium
Description
General: stiff-hairy and glandular to glandular-short-hairy
biennial or perennial, probably often flowering the first
season, the stems creeping or trailing, tending to sprawl
and root at the nodes. Flowering stems erect, simple or
branched, mostly 20-40 cm tall.
 Leaves: opposite, the prostrate stems usually with
crowded mostly oblanceolate or spatulate leaves 10-25
mm long and 2-5 mm broad. Leaves of the flowering stems
much more widely spaced and much larger, up to 4 cm
long and 15 mm broad, stalkless.
 Flowers: usually several to many in an open, 2-forkedly
branched cluster, the bracts only slightly or not at all
membranous-edged. Terminal flower at the forks with a
stalk usually at least 2-3 times as long as the calyx, the
side flowers often longer than their stalks also. Sepals 4-7
mm long, more or less stiff-hairy, often non-glandular.
Petals about equalling the calyx.
Flowering time: May-October.
 Fruits: capsule cylindric, about twice the length of the
calyx, the seeds 0.6-0.8 mm long, reddish-brown.
Distribution
Fields, lawns, wooded areas, in moist soil and light shade,
in w., c. and s.e. parts of MT. A Eurasian weed, common
throughout most of temperate and subarctic N. America.
  Edible and medicinal plant: see below.
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