CERASTIUM BRACHYPETALUM subsp. ROESERI

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Common Name:- Grey mouse-ear

Synonyms:- Cerastium roeseri.

Meaning:- Cerastium (Gr) Horned, (the fruiting capsule's shape).

Brachypetalum (Gr) With sort petals.

Roeseri (L) Possibly for Paul Roeser, Botanist

General description:- Annual, densely hairy. with erect branches.

Stem:-

a) up to 40 cm.

b) with long, deflexed, spreading (patent) or ascending eglandular hairs, with or

without glandular hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Blade:

a) up to 20 mm.

b) lower, spatula-shaped or obovate.

c) upper, ovate, elliptical or oblong, obtuse to acute, hairy.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) more or less lax.

b) stalks (pedicels) 3-27 mm. bent just below the flower, with patent or

ascending-appressed eglandular hairs.

2) Bracts, herbaceous.

3) Sepals:

a) 3-6·5 mm.

b) lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse to acute.

c) margin, thin and dry (scarious), with eglandular hairs exceeding the apex.

4) Petals:

a) shorter than or longer than the sepals, bifid for up to 1/3 their length, with a

small auricle at the base.

b) stamens up to 10.

c) styles 5.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule:

a) 6-9 mm.

b) cylindrical or oblong.

c) often more or less curved.

2) Seeds:

a) 0·4-1 mm.

b) numerous.

c) spherical or reniform.

d) minutely tuberculate.

Key features:-

1) Sepals 3-6·5 mm.

Habitat:- Rocky and gravelly slopes with open shrubby vegetation, orchards and

open coniferous woodland.

Distribution:- Fairly widespread across the Mediterranean but not common. On

Crete confined to the three main massifs, not common.

Flowering time:- Apr-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton