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How to Manage Pests

Identification: Weed Photo Gallery

Mouseear chickweed

Scientific name: Cerastium fontanum ssp. vulgare (Pink Family: Caryophyllaceae)

Life stages of Mouseear chickweed Seedling Flower Mature plants

Click on image to enlarge

DESCRIPTION:
Mouseear chickweed is a prostrate perennial broadleaf weed with stems that root at the nodes to form dense patches. Cotyledons (seed leaves) are rounded and lack hairs or have a few hairs. First and next few leaf pairs are oval to narrowly football shaped, with long hairs and an abruptly pointed tip on a stalk equal in length to blade. True leaves are opposite, rounded on the ends, and stalkless. Hairs are prominent on the upper leaf surface and on stems. Small, white, inconspicuous flowers are formed in clusters at the end of stems and have five petals. Each petal is so deeply divided that flowers often appear to have ten petals rather than five.

Broadleaf ID illustration.

Text modified from Elmore, C.L., W.B. McHenry, and D.W. Cudney. 1989. Weed control in large turf areas. Chapter 3 in Turfgrass Pests. UC ANR Publication 4053.


Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California
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