Plants → Caryophyllaceae → Moenchia
Moenchia erecta (L.) P.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb.
Erect Chickweed
Oekon.Fl.Wetterau 1:219 (1799)
Conservation Status:
Alien
Name Status:
Current
Brief Description
Grazyna Paczkowska,
Wednesday 15 May 1996
Slender, erect annual, herb, 0.05–0.14 m high. Fl. white, Oct. Sandy soils. Distribution: SW: JF, SWA.
Scientific Description
Amanda Spooner, James Carpenter, Gillian Smith and Kim Spence,
Thursday 21 August 2008
Common name(s). Upright Chickweed.
Habit. Annual, broad-leaved, erect or decumbent, glabrous, glaucous herbs, up to 0.2 m high.
Leaves. Forming a basal rosette (but basal leaves fall early), opposite, decussate, simple, sheathing (with swollen nodes), sessile. Leaf blade 5–20 mm long, 0.5–2 mm wide, undissected, elliptic or ovate or linear, base truncate, margins entire, apex acute. Blade glabrous.
Flowers. In cymes (a few-flowered cluster); predominantly green or white, regular, pedicellate, pedicel 10–50 mm long, perianth 2 -whorled. Calyx 4.5–8 mm long, 4 sepals, all sepals free. Corolla 2–5 mm long (two-thirds length of sepals), 4 petals, all petals free. Stamens 4 (or 8), both opposite and alternating with the corolla parts, free of each other. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Ovary syncarpous, superior, 1 -celled. Ovules numerous. Styles 4, simple.
Fruit. Dehiscent (by 8 teeth), a capsule (straight), non-fleshy, 6–8 mm long (equal to or slightly longer than sepals), 2–2.5 mm wide.
Distribution. Australian: Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania. Alien to Australia, alien to Western Australia, naturalised. Native distribution: western and southern Europe, north to England and east to Turkey.
Habitat. Amongst medium trees; in sand, loam, clay (mossy); occupying river flats; paddocks; growing in disturbed natural vegetation (edges of tracks).
Flowering period. September, October, November.
Descriptions are sourced from the Weed Information Network project, Western Australian Herbarium.
Descriptions were generated using DELTA data format and DELTA software: Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1995 onwards, 1998).
