Crisp Sandwort
Stellaria crispa
Description: Low, spreading, clumped or matted perennial from slender rhizomes. Hairless stems are weak and prostrate or ascending, mostly unbranched, 5-50cm long. Small white flowers have 5 sepals with no or shortened petals. Produces brownish capsules nearly twice as long as the sepals.
Ecology: Common in moist sites, shady alder forests, thickets, streambanks, seepage areas, at low and middle elevations
Notes: This picture was taken in moist, humus rich soil at Wakefield Creek, Sechelt, BC.
Northern Starwort
Stellaria calycantha
Description: Low, sprawling or matted perennial herb from long rhizomes. Stems are hairless or slightly hairy, prostrate, ascending or erect. Opposite stalk less leaves are elliptically lance shaped. White or greenish flowers with petals that are as long as sepals or are absent, here present. Straw coloured or purplish capsules are longer than flowers.
Ecology: Scattered but locally common in wet meadows, streambanks, thickets, roadsides and open moist forests at low to moderately high elevations
Notes: This white petaled specimen was found at the edge of Chapman Creek in Sechelt, BC, June 2001.
Rose Campion
Lychnis coronaria
Description: Grey-woolly perennial 0.5-1m tall with numerous lance shaped basal leaves and opposite stem leaves that are reduced in size. Showy deep purplish-red flowers are hairy, veined and somewhat heart shaped in a loose flat-topped cluster.
Ecology: Common at low elevations on roadsides, yards, and waste places.
Notes: This plant was INTRODUCED from Europe as a garden plant and is often seen growing in gardens here in BC. It is an introduced weed but does not pose much threat to native species because of its preference for disturbed waste sites and roadsides.
