Stellaria 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 about 90-120 species flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in 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...

, with a cosmopolitan distribution

Cosmopolitan distribution

In biogeography, a taxon is said to have a cosmopolitan distribution if its range extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. For instance, the killer whale has a cosmopolitan distribution, extending over most of the world's oceans. Other examples include humans, the lichen...

. Common names include stitchwort and chickweed.

Food use

Chickweeds 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 Angle Shades

Angle Shades

The Angle Shades is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common and familiar European species and is often strongly migratory....

, Heart and Dart

Heart and Dart

The Heart and Dart is a moth of the family Noctuidae. A familiar moth to many, it is considered one of the most common of the European region....

, Riband Wave

Riband Wave

The Riband Wave is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is an abundant species in Europe, the Near East and North Africa, its distinctive outline familiar at lighted windows....

, Setaceous Hebrew Character

Setaceous Hebrew Character

The Setaceous Hebrew Character is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic ecozone. It is a common species throughout Europe. It is also found in North America, from coast to coast across Canada and the northern United States to western Alaska. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains...

 and the Coleophora

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...

case-bearers C. coenosipennella (feeds exclusively on Stellaria spp), C. lineolea (recorded on S. graminea), C. lithargyrinella (recorded on S. holostea), C. solitariella (feeds exclusively on S. holostea) and C. striatipennella.

Uses

Some species, including Stellaria media, are used as leaf vegetable

Leaf vegetable

Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, green vegetables, greens, leafy greens or salad greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots...

s, often raw in salad

Salad

Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...

s.

Stellaria media is widespread in North America from the Brooks Range

Brooks Range

The Brooks Range is a mountain range in far northern North America. It stretches from west to east across northern Alaska and into Canada's Yukon Territory, a total distance of about 1100 km . The mountains top out at over 2,700 m . The range is believed to be approximately 126 million years old...

 in Alaska to all points south within North America. There are several closely related plants referred to as chickweed, but which lack the culinary and medicinal properties of plants in the genus Stellaria. Plants in the genus Cerastium are very similar in appearance to Stellaria and are in the same family (Carophyllaceae). Stellaria media can be easily distinguished from all other members of this family by examining the stems. Stellaria has fine hairs on only one side of the stem in a single band. Other members of the family Carophyllaceae which resemble Stellaria have hairs uniformly covering the entire stem.
This is a favored food of finches and many other seed-eating birds.

Selected species

Stellaria abortiva Stellaria alaschanica Stellaria alaskana Stellaria alsine Stellaria amblyosepala Stellaria americana Stellaria arenarioides Stellaria arisanensis Stellaria aquaticum - Water Chickweed Stellaria axillaris Stellaria bistyla Stellaria borealis Stellaria borealis Stellaria borealis is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name boreal starwort. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout northern areas of the Northern Hemisphere. It occurs in many types of moist and wet habitat, including marshes, riverbanks,... Stellaria brachypetala Stellaria bungeana Stellaria calycantha Stellaria calycantha Stellaria calycantha is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name northern starwort. It is native to western North America from Alaska and northwestern Canada to California and New Mexico, as well as eastern Russia. It occurs in subalpine and alpine climates, in many... Stellaria cherleriae Stellaria chinensis Stellaria chinensis Stellaria chinensis is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Xenophoridae, the carrier shells.... Stellaria ciliatisepala Stellaria congestiflora Stellaria corei Stellaria crassifolia Stellaria crassifolia Stellaria crassifolia is a plant of the stellaria genus and found in Iceland. Its common Icelandish name is "Stjörnuarfi" .... Stellaria crassipes Stellaria crispa Stellaria crispa Stellaria crispa is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names curled starwort and crisp starwort. It is native to western North America from Alaska south to California and Wyoming, where it grows in moist, shady habitat such as deep forests and streambanks... Stellaria cuspidata Stellaria decumbens Stellaria delavayi Stellaria depressa Stellaria dianthifolia Stellaria dichotoma Stellaria dicranoides Stellaria discolor Stellaria ebracteata Stellaria fennica Stellaria filicaulis Stellaria flaccida Stellaria flaccida Stellaria flaccida, the Forest Starwort is a wildflower found in eastern and southern Australia. A small ground covering plant. It may grow to 50 cm tall, but usually seen shorter than this.... - Forest Starwort Stellaria fontinalis Stellaria graminea Stellaria graminea Stellaria graminea is a species of flowering plant in the Caryophyllaceae known by the common names grassleaf starwort and common stitchwort. It is native to Eurasia but it is widespread around other parts of the temperate world as an introduced species and a common weed. It grows in many types of... - Lesser Stitchwort Stellaria gyangtseensis Stellaria gyirongensis Stellaria henryi Stellaria holostea Stellaria holostea Stellaria holostea is an ornamental plant native of Europe.It can grow up to 50cm in height, with leaves that are long, narrow and fresh green. The flowers are white, 20-30mm across and have five distinctive petals split to about half way down.-External links:**... - Greater Stitchwort Stellaria humifusa Stellaria humifusa Stellaria humifusa or Saltmarsh Starwort is known in Iceland as "Lágarfi" , and grows only in beach areas.... - Saltmarsh Starwort Stellaria imbricata Stellaria infracta Stellaria irrigua Stellaria lanata Stellaria lanipes

Stellaria littoralis Stellaria littoralis Stellaria littoralis is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name beach starwort. It is endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area and North Coast of California, where it grows in moist coast habitat, such as marshes, bogs, and coastal bluffs... Stellaria longifolia Stellaria longifolia Stellaria longifolia is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name longleaf starwort. It is native to much of the northern half of the Northern Hemisphere, occurring throughout northern Europe and North America. It grows in many types of moist habitat, including... Stellaria longipes Stellaria longipes Stellaria longipes is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name longstalk starwort. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northernmost latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. It grows in a wide variety of habitat types, including tundra and taiga... - Long-stalk Starwort Stellaria mainlingensis Stellaria martjanovii Stellaria media - Common Chickweed Stellaria monosperma Stellaria neglecta Stellaria neglecta Stellaria neglecta, greater chickweed, is an annual or short-lived perennial herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Europe and has been introduced to North America.-Taxonomy:... - Greater Chickweed Stellaria nemorum - Wood Stitchwort Stellaria nepalensis Stellaria nipponica Stellaria nitens Stellaria nitens Stellaria nitens is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names shining starwort and shiny chickweed. It is native to western North America, including British Columbia, Alberta, and the western United States, its distribution extending into Mexico at least as far as... Stellaria obtusa Stellaria obtusa Stellaria obtusa is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names Rocky Mountain chickweed, blunt-sepaled starwort, and obtuse stellaria... Stellaria omeiensis Stellaria ovatifolia Stellaria oxycoccoides Stellaria pallida Stellaria pallida Stellaria pallida, commonly known as lesser chickweed, is an annual herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Europe and is an introduced species in North America.-Taxonomy:... - Lesser Chickweed Stellaria palustris - Marsh Stitchwort Stellaria parva Stellaria parviumbellata Stellaria patens Stellaria petiolaris Stellaria petraea Stellaria pilosoides Stellaria porsildii Stellaria porsildii Stellaria porsildii is a rare species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name Porsild's starwort. It is native to Arizona, where it can be found in the Chiricahua Mountains, and New Mexico, where it is known from one mountain.... Stellaria pubera Stellaria pubera Stellaria pubera is a wildflower found in the eastern United States and the Great Smokey Mountains.Star Chickweed Stellaria puberaIdentification:... - Star Chickweed Stellaria pusilla Stellaria radians Stellaria reticulivena Stellaria rotundifolia Stellaria ruscifolia Stellaria salicifolia Stellaria soongorica Stellaria souliei Stellaria stenopetala Stellaria strongylosepala Stellaria subumbellata Stellaria tibetica Stellaria uda Stellaria uliginosa - Bog Stitchwort Stellaria umbellata Stellaria umbellata Stellaria umbellata is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names umbellate starwort and umbrella starwort. It is native to western North America from Alaska and northwestern Canada to the southwestern United States, as well as parts of Asia, including Siberia. It... Stellaria vestita Stellaria winkleri Stellaria wushanensis Stellaria yunnanensis Stellaria zangnanensis