Arenaria congesta
Encyclopedia
Arenaria congesta is a species of flowering plant in the pink family
known by the common name ballhead sandwort. It is native to western North America from central Canada to the American southwest.
The inflorescence
is an open or rounded cyme of five-petalled white flowers. The fruit is a toothed capsule containing several reddish seeds.
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Caryophyllaceae
The Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactaceae and Polygonaceae...
known by the common name ballhead sandwort. It is native to western North America from central Canada to the American southwest.
Description
This is a perennial herb forming a tuft of slender upright stems up to about 40 centimeters tall. The leaves are needlelike to thready, up to 8 centimeters long and only a few millimeters wide. They may be fleshy or flat and they often have a very sharp tip. Most of the leaves are located in a patch at the base of the plant, and there are a few scattered along the mostly naked stem.The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is an open or rounded cyme of five-petalled white flowers. The fruit is a toothed capsule containing several reddish seeds.
Uses
The plant was used for a variety of medicinal purposes by Native American groups, including the ShoshoneShoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
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