Alsine longifolia (Muhl. ex Willd.) Britton:
United States (North America)
Canada (North America)

Stellaria longifolia Muhl. ex Willd.:
Canada (North America)
Japan (Asia)
Mongolia (Asia)
Russian Federation (Asia)
South Korea (Asia)
United States (North America)
China (Asia)

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Stellaria longifolia often is confused with forms of S. longipes but differs in having leaves that are widest at or above the middle and in having the angles of the stem and/or the leaf margins minutely papillate-scabrid. The capsules can be either straw colored or black. Plants with black capsules have been named var. atrata.  

Hybrids with Stellaria borealis subsp. borealis often occur; see note under that species.

Plants perennial, forming loose clumps, from elongate rhizomes. Stems erect or straggling, branched, square, 10-35 cm, glabrous but angles minutely papillate-scabrid. Leaves sessile; blade green to yellowish green, never glaucous, linear to very narrowly elliptic, widest at or beyond middle, 0.8-4 cm × 1-3 mm, not coriaceous, base attenuate, apex acuminate to acute, glabrous to sparingly ciliate at base, margins minutely papillate-scabrid; proximal leaves shorter and wider. Inflorescences terminal, widely divaricate, 2-many-flowered cymes; bracts lanceolate, 1-5 mm, scarious, apex acuminate. Pedicels straight or somewhat arcuate, commonly 3-30 mm, glabrous or scabrous. Flowers 5-9 mm diam.; sepals 5, obscurely 3-veined, ovate-elliptic, 2-4 mm, margins scarious, apex acute, glabrous; petals 5, 2-3.5 mm, ± equaling sepals; stamens 5-10; styles 3, ascending, ca. 1 mm. Capsules blackish purple or straw colored, ovoid-conic, 3-6 mm, much longer than sepals, opening by 6 valves; carpophore absent. Seeds brown, broadly reniform, 0.7-0.8 mm diam., slightly rugose. 2n = 26.

Herbs perennial, glabrous. Stems densely tufted, ascending, quadrangular, 15--25 cm tall, branched, diffuse; axillary sterile branches present. Leaves linear or broadly linear, 1.5--3.5 cm × 0.5--2 mm, sometimes sparsely shortly ciliolate, midvein conspicuous, slightly narrowed at base, apex acuminate. Flowers in terminal or mostly axillary cymes; peduncles 3--6 cm, glabrous; bracts white, ovate-lanceolate, 1--2 mm, ciliate, sometimes margin membranous, apex long acuminate. Pedicel 1--1.5 cm, to 2.5 cm after anthesis, slender. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, 2.5--3 mm, 3--4 mm in fruit, inconspicuously 3-veined, margin membranous, apex obtuse or slightly acute. Petals 5, subequaling or slightly longer than sepals, 2-cleft nearly to base; lobes sublinear, base narrowed, apex obtuse. Stamens 10; filaments linear; anthers yellow. Ovary ovoid-cylindric; styles 3. Capsule brown-black, ovoid-orbicular, 1.5--2 × as long as persistent sepals, 6-valved. Seeds numerous, brown, ovoid-orbicular or ellipsoid, 0.8--1 mm, nearly smooth. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jun--Aug. 2n = 26.

Alsine longifolia (Muhlenberg ex Willdenow) Britton; Stellaria atrata (J. W. Moore) B. Boivin; S. atrata var. eciliata B. Boivin; S. diffusa Willdenow ex Schlechtendal; S. longifolia var. atrata J. W. Moore; S. longifolia var. eciliata (B. Boivin) B. Boivin

Stellaria diffusa Willdenow ex Schlechter; S. diffusa f. ciliolata Kitagawa; S. diffusa var. ciliolata (Kitagawa) Kitagawa; S. friesiana Seringe; S. longifolia f. ciliolata (Kitagawa) Y. C. Chu; S. longifolia var. legitima Regel.

Flowering late spring-summer. Wet meadows and woodlands, marshes, muskegs, grassy roadsides, usually in circumneutral to calcareous sites; 0-2800 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Europe.

Wet meadows, forest margins, forests; ca. 1900 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; Europe, North America].

Stellaria longifolia (Long-Leaved Stitchwort)
(Short-tongued bees collect pollen or suck nectar; other insects suck nectar; except for one observation by Graenicher as indicated below, these observations are from Robertson)

Bees (long-tongued)
Anthophoridae (Eucerini): Synhalonia speciosa sn; Anthophoridae (Nomadini): Nomada superba superba sn; Megachilidae (Osmiini): Osmia conjuncta sn

Bees (short-tongued)
Halictidae (Halictinae): Augochlorella aurata sn, Halictus confusus sn, Lasioglossum imitatus sn, Lasioglossum versatus sn cp; Colletidae (Hylaeinae): Hylaeus affinis sn; Andrenidae (Andreninae): Andrena personata sn cp

Flies
Sciaridae: Sciara atrata sn; Syrphidae: Parhelophilus laetus sn, Toxomerus marginatus sn; Bombyliidae: Bombylius fulvibasis sn (Gr); Tachinidae: Gymnoclytia immaculata sn fq

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 3
Species: 9
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: TNR - Not Yet Ranked

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Comments: Threatened by land-use conversion and habitat fragmentation (Southern Appalachian Species Viability Project 2002).