cerastium

[suh-ras-tee-uhm]

noun

plural

cerastiums 

1. any of various low-growing plants of the genus Cerastium, having leaves covered with whitish or grayish down and small white flowers, and including mouse-ear chickweed and snow-in-summer.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cerastium¹

< New Latin (Linnaeus) < Greek kerást ( ēs ) horned ( cerastes ) + New Latin -ium -ium; so called from the horn-shaped seed capsules of some species

Example Sentences

Mr. Packe mentions the following plants as occurring at 9000 to 10,000 feet in the Pyrenees:—Cerastium latifolium, Draba Wahlenbergii, Hutchinsia alpina, Linaria alpina, Oxyria reniformis, Ranunculus glacialis, Saxifraga nervosa, S. oppositifolia, S. Grœnlandica, Statice Armeria, Veronica alpina.

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Cerastium vulgatum L. Flowers white; pods cylindrical; seeds light-reddish yellow to dark reddish brown; slightly flattened, 4-sided, 2 of them straight, converging, one rounded, the other narrow and notched.

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Flowers much less than 1 cm. wide Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium nutans. 19b.

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Stem-leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium arvense. 20b.

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Stem-leaves oblong Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium arvense var. oblongifolium. 21a.

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