Bog Stitchwort - Stellaria alsine

Alternative names
Stellaria uliginosa
Description

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.

Similar Species

Other chickweeds

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

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

Recording advice

Details of flower and stem

Habitat

Damp places, wet ditches, marshes and water margins.

When to see it

May and June.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Widespread throughout Britain though scarcer in the extreme South.

VC55 Status

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

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

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

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Bog Stitchwort
Species group:
flowering plant
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Caryophyllaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
50
First record:
11/05/1992 (John Mousley;Steve Grover)
Last record:
07/05/2025 (Higgott, Mike)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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