Common name – Chickweed

Botanical name – Stellaria media

Family – Caryophyllaceae

Collection site – Sector 32, Chandigarh

Habitat – Common chickweed is a very common annual weed of lawns and fields.

Habit – Winter annual herb

Stem –  Erect, branched, herbaceous, green, pubescent bearing a single row of hairs on alternating sides

Leaves –  Opposite decussate, simple, ovate-elliptic, acute or shortly acuminate, petiole of lower leaves having a line of hairs

Inflorescence – flowers solitary or few-flowered, terminal cymes,

Flower – white, pedicellate,

Calyx –  sepals five, usually with long soft hairs

Corolla – petals five, deeply lobed giving the appearance of 10 petals, white,

Androecium – stamens three to five

Gynoecium – single pistil with three or four styles

Fruit – a many seeded dry ovoid capsule

Seeds – Dark brown, slightly elongated toward the notch at the scar, the surface covered with conspicuous curved rows of irregular wart-like projections, marginal projections were more prominent and toothed in appearance.

Foldscopy – Pollen grains, glandular trichomes and wart-like marginal projections on seeds were observed under foldscope.

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