Short, bluish green creeping plant, stems spreading to ascending, square, hairless and smooth. Leaves elliptical to lanceolate, pointed unstalked (except on overwintering shoots). Flowers 5 to 7 mm, sepals longer than the deeply cleft petals.

Other chickweeds

Petals split ('bifid') almost to base, styles 3; stems glabrous and angled, square in section. 

Details of flower and stem

Damp places, wet ditches, marshes and water margins.

May and June.

Perennial.

Widespread throughout Britain though scarcer in the extreme South.

Frequent but sometimes local in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 289 of the 617 tetrads

In the current checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, locally frequent