Birdeye pearlwort (Sagina procumbens)

Synonyms: Sagina procumbens var. compacta

Common Names: Procumbent pearlwort

Description: First collected in Michigan in Marquette County in 1889.

Habit:

Leaves: 1 mm wide, hairless, toothless, stalkless, linear, sometimes with a bristle-like tip, sometimes fleshy. Basal leaves are the longest, 2/3 in long, arranges in a rosette; stem leaves are shorter, opposite or whirled.

Stems: Green in color, hairless, usually many branched, ascending or prostrate, root at the nodes.

Flowers: Single, hairless, borne at the tips of branching stems or on a stalk arising from leaf axil. Less than 0.25 in wide, 4 rounded sepals that are green in color, alternating with 4 white petals smaller than the sepals. Sometimes with 5 petals and sepals.

Fruit and seeds: Capsule, 4 triangular teeth at the tip, becoming spreading and turning upright; seeds are tiny and black-brown in color.

Habitat: Native to Europe and Asia. Can be found in waste places, roadsides, shores, rocks, trail edges, lawns and disturbed sites.

Reproduction: By seed.

Monitoring and rapid response: Removing the seed bank is key. Herbicides have been shown to be an effective control measure but dormant seeds can remain in the soil.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Minnesota Wildflowers and the University of Michigan Herbarium.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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