Cerastium Cerastium, Dufour

51. C. gracile Dufour View in CoL , Ann. Gén. Sci. Phys. (Bruxelles) 7: 304 (1820)

(C. bulgaricum Uechtr. , C. gayanum Boiss. , C. schmalhausenii Paez. , C. velenovskyi Hayek ).

Annual up to 22 cm; stem, leaves, young capsule and petals sometimes suffused with purple; stems with numerous glandular and few eglandular hairs. Leaves 3-15 mm, lower spathulate or obovate; cauline linear- lanceolate to ovate-oblong, glandular and hairy. Inflorescence often much-branched; pedicels usually shorter, rarely longer, than sepals; bracts herbaceous. Sepals 2- 5-7 mm, ovate-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, obtuse to acute, the outer without or with very narrow scarious margin, the inner with a scarious margin, all glandular-hairy, the glands not exceeding the apex; petals shorter to slightly longer than sepals, emarginate or shallowly bifid. Capsule 4-14 mm. Seeds 0-4-1 mm, pale to chestnutbrown, finely tuberculate. 2« = 88-92. S. Europe, northwards to c. 49° N. in Ukraine. Bu Co Ga Gr Hs Lu Rm Rs (W, K, E).

Very variable, especially in size of sepals, petals, capsules and seeds; perhaps divisible into several subspecies.