Stellaria longipes

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}} {{Speciesbox | image = Stellarialongipes-altocaulis.jpg | status = {{TNCStatus}} | status_system = TNC | status_ref = <ref name="NatureServe">{{cite web |last1=NatureServe |title=''Stellaria longipes'' |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.161036/Stellaria_longipes |access-date=30 January 2024 |location=Arlington, Virginia |date=2024}}</ref> | genus = Stellaria | species = longipes | authority = Goldie | synonyms = * ''Alsine longipes'' <small>(Goldie) Coville</small> * ''Stellularia longipes'' <small>(Goldie) MacMill.</small> }}

'''''Stellaria longipes''''' is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names '''longstalk starwort''' and '''Goldie's starwort'''.<ref>{{PLANTS|id=STLO2|taxon=Stellaria longipes|accessdate=1 December 2015}}</ref> It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northernmost latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a perennial herb<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stellaria longipes Calflora|url=https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=10395|access-date=2021-11-27|website=www.calflora.org}}</ref> that grows in a wide variety of habitat types, including tundra and taiga and many areas further south with subalpine and alpine climates. It is extremely variable in morphology, its form depending on both genetic makeup and environmental conditions.<ref name=long>[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060936 Flora of North America: ssp. ''longipes'']</ref> It has a widely varying number of chromosomes.<ref name=long/> In general, it is a rhizomatous perennial herb forming mats or clumps, or growing upright. The stems may be short and simple or with sprawling and highly branched. The linear to lance-shaped leaves are usually 1 to 4 centimeters long and are oppositely arranged in pairs. The inflorescence bears one or more flowers, each on a short pedicel. The flower has five pointed green sepals each a few millimeters long. There are five white petals each divided into two lobes, sometimes shallowly, but often so deeply there appear to be two petals. The plant is gynodioecious, with some flowers having functional male and female reproductive parts and others being only female.<ref>Dang, T. and C. Chinnappa. (2007). The reproductive biology of ''Stellaria longipes'' Goldie (Caryophyllaceae) in North America. ''Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants'' 202:5 403-7</ref>

There are two subtaxa. The rarer of the two, subsp. ''arenicola'', is limited to the sand dunes adjacent to Lake Athabasca in central Canada.<ref>[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060935 Flora of North America: ssp. ''arenicola'']</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?2907,3055,0,3062 Jepson Manual Treatment: var. ''longipes''] *[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060934 Flora of North America] *[http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/img_query?where-taxon=Stellaria+longipes+ssp.+longipes Photo gallery]

longipes Category:Flora of Eastern Europe Category:Flora of Subarctic America Category:Flora of Canada Category:Flora of the Northeastern United States Category:Flora of the North-Central United States Category:Flora of the South-Central United States Category:Flora of the Northwestern United States Category:Flora of the Southwestern United States