Foto info
ative Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Chickweed, Starweed, Star Chickweed, Passerina • Hindi: Buch-bucha बुच-बुचा • Manipuri: ꯌꯦꯔꯨꯝ ꯀꯩꯔꯨꯝ যেৰুম কৈৰুম Yerum keirum
Botanical name: Stellaria media      Family: Caryophyllaceae (Carnation family)

It is a common weed almost world-wide. Chickweed is an annual, but is somewhat unusual in that it often germinates in the fall (though it also germinates year-round), and hangs on through the winter, flowering and setting seed in the early spring, and dying off by summer. It's at its best in the spring and fall, as it greatly prefers cool and damp conditions, and will not survive where it's dry and hot. Chickweed is just about always flowering, except in the dead of winter. It has tiny white flowers, about a quarter inch in diameter, in the leaf axils or in terminal clusters, with five deeply notched petals that look like ten, and five green sepals that are longer than the petals. The flowers close at night and open in the morning. They also close when it's about to rain.

Photographed in Manipur.

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