Plants perennial, with stems loosely tufted, rhizomatous. Stems erect, branched, 4-sided, 10-40 cm, with alternating lines of spreading, soft, flexuous, mainly eglandular hairs. Leaves usually sessile (distal), often short-petiolate (proximal); blade elliptic, obovate, or lanceolate, widest at or beyond middle, 1-10 cm × 5-35 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, glabrous to sparsely pubescent adaxially, ciliate on margins and abaxial midrib. Inflorescences terminal, 3-70-flowered cymes; bracts elliptic to lanceolate, 7-65 mm, herbaceous. Pedicels erect in flower, often deflexed at base in fruit, 5-40 mm, softly pubescent. Flowers (8-)10-12 mm diam.; sepals 5, with midrib, ovate, 3.5-6 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex obtuse to acute, softly and often sparsely pubescent; petals 5, 4-8 mm, longer than sepals; stamens 10; styles 3, ascending, 2.5 mm. Capsules green to straw colored, broadly ovoid, 3.5-5.5 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. Seeds brown, obliquely reniform, 1.5-2 mm diam., coarsely sulcate-papillate. 2n = 30. Flowering spring. Rich deciduous woods, alluvial bottomlands; 100-1000 m; Ala., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ind., Ky., Md., Nebr., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va. Stellaria pubera has been introduced in Nebraska and possibly in Illinois. It is very similar to S. corei but is distinguished by its shorter, more ovate sepals.
Erect or ascending perennial 1.5-4 dm, thinly spreading-hairy, the stem often pubescent in 1 or 2 lines; early floriferous shoots followed by taller, more vigorous, chiefly vegetative ones; lvs elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate or ovate, 2-9 נ1-3 cm, acute; fls in leafy, open, terminal cymes; pedicels 1-3 cm; pet and the ovoid fr shorter than the sep; seeds 1.7-2 mm, asymmetrically reniform, coarsely sulcate-papillate. Woods; N.J. to Ill., s. to Fla. and Ala. Apr.-June. Var. pubera (2n=30), with all but the lowermost lvs sessile, and with obtuse to acute sep mostly 4-6 mm that are usually puberulent on the back, occurs mainly in and e. of the Appalachian Mts., but may be found anywhere in the range of the sp. as a whole. Var. silvatica (Bꧮ) Weath. (2n=60), with the middle and lower lvs narrowed to a winged petiole 1-2 cm, and with the lance-acuminate sep 7-10 mm and glabrous except for the ciliate margins, occurs chiefly in and w. of the Appalachian Mts. If the var. silvatica is treated as a distinct sp. it apparently takes the name S. corei Shinners. S. silvatica (Bꧮ) Maguire is preoccupied, and Alsine tennesseensis properly applies to a form of var. pubera instead of var. silvatica.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.