Cerastium Cerastium, Baumg.

38. C. fontanum Baumg. View in CoL , Enum. Stirp. Transs. 1: 425 (1816).

Short-lived perennial up to 60 cm, with short basal non-flowering shoots. Leaves sessile. At least the upper bracts with scarious margins. Petals not or scarcely longer than sepals. Capsule curved. Seeds 0-4-1-2mm, tuberculate. Almost throughout Europe. All territories, but only introduced in Sb.

Extremely variable. The following treatment is incomplete, as several taxa, especially from S. Europe, are too little known. 1 Sepals 3-7 mm; seeds 0-4-0-8 mm 2 Seed-tubercles low, 4-5 times as wide as high (mountains of Iberian peninsula) (d) subsp. hispanicum

2 Seed-tubercles as wide as high (widespread) (e) subsp. triviale 1 Sepals 6-9 mm; seeds 0-8-1-2 mm 3 Petals usually ciliate, shorter to slightly longer than sepals

(a) subsp. macrocarpum

3 Petals glabrous or with a few short hairs only, usually conspicuously longer than sepals

4 Usually sparsely viscid-pubescent, hairs c. 1 mm; sepals with narrow scarious margins (b) subsp. scandicum

4 Densely pubescent, hairs commonly more than 1 mm, very seldom glandular; sepals with wide scarious margins

(c) subsp. fontanum