Cerastium
Encyclopedia
Cerastium is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of annual, winter annual, or perennial plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

s belonging to the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Caryophyllaceae
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...

. The around 100 species are commonly called Mouse-ear chickweed; different species are found nearly worldwide but the greatest concentration is mainly from the northern temperate areas of the world. A number are common weeds in fields and on disturbed ground.

Cerastium species are used as food plants by the larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 species including Coleophora chalcogrammella
Coleophora
Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions...

(which feeds exclusively on Cerastium arvense) and Coleophora striatipennella
Coleophora
Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions...

(which has been recorded on Cerastium fontanum).

Species include:
  • Cerastium aleuticum
  • Cerastium alpinum
    Cerastium alpinum
    Cerastium alpinum, commonly called Alpine mouse-ear chickweed or Alpine chickweed is a species of mat forming perennial plant. It is native from Greenland, Canada and northern Europe It is grown as a rock garden subject for its many small white flowers and silver haired stems and foliage. There...

  • Cerastium arcticum
    Cerastium arcticum
    Cerastium arcticum is a flower distributed at parts of western and southern Greenland, Baffin Island, Labrador, Iceland, Scotland, Norway and Svalbard....

  • Cerastium arvense
    Cerastium arvense
    Cerastium arvense is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name field chickweed. It is a widespread species, occurring throughout Europe and North America, as well as parts of South America. It is a variable species. There are several subspecies, but the number and...

  • Cerastium beeringinanum
  • Cerastium biebersteinii
    Cerastium biebersteinii
    Boreal chickweed is an ornamental plant of the Caryophyllaceae family.-External links:*...

  • Cerastium brachypetalum
    Cerastium brachypetalum
    Cerastium brachypetalum, commonly called Gray chickweed or Gray mouse-ear chickweed, is a spring blooming annual plant species. It is native from Eurasia and introduced and naturalized in North America....

  • Cerastium dichotomum
  • Cerastium dubium
  • Cerastium fontanum
    Cerastium fontanum
    Cerastium fontanum, also called Common mouse-ear, is a species of mat forming perennial, or rarely, annual plant. It is native to Europe but introduced elsewhere....

  • Cerastium glomeratum
    Cerastium glomeratum
    Cerastium glomeratum is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names sticky mouse-ear chickweed and clammy chickweed. It is probably native to Eurasia but it is known on most continents as an introduced species. It grows in many types of habitat. This is an annual herb...

  • Cerastium nigrescens
  • Cerastium tomentosum
    Cerastium tomentosum
    Cerastium tomentosum is a herbaceous flowering plant & a member of the carnation family. It is generally distinguished from other species of its genus by "tomentose" or felty foliage. It is a low, spreading perrenial native to alpine regions of Europe. The stems & leaves are silvery-grey, whilst...

  • Cerastium utriense
    Cerastium utriense
    Cerastium utriense is a species of perennial flowering plant in the genus Cerastium, belonging to the pink family.-Description:Cerastium utriense is a hemicryptophyte scapose plant reaching on average of height, with a maximum of . It takes the form of a mat or clump...


External links

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