Greater Stitchwort

Greater Stitchwort - Stellaria holostea

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Description

Short to medium, rather straggly plant. Stems weak, square and rough. Leaves narrow, lanceolate and pointed rough at the margins. Flowers 18 to 30 mm white in lax clusters. Petals cleft at least to half way, twice as long as the sepals.

Designation

Indicator Species - Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Petals much longer than sepals

Habitat

Woods, hedgerows and road verges.

When to see it

April to June.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Quite common throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 221 of the 617 tetrads.

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

 

  • Graham Calow
    Sapcote
    26 April 2007
  • HAPeacock
    Martinshaw Wood
    31 May 2013
  • David Nicholls
    Martinshaw Wood
    09 May 2009
  • David Nicholls
    Groby Pool
    10 May 2008
  • David Nicholls
    Sheet Hedges Wood
    07 April 2022
  • egaten
    Burroughs Wood
    25 May 2021

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records

Photo of the association

Brachycolus stellariae

Brachycolus stellariae aphids cause galls on Greater Stitchwort.  The leaves at the shoot tip become thickened, distorted and bunched up, sometimes twisted and with inrolled margins