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.