Lesser Chickweed - Stellaria pallida

An insignificant looking plant, it is a little paler than Common Chickweed. It is mainly prostrate and has flowers which may have very tiny white petals, but often has no petals at all. 

Stellaria media and other chickweeds - refer to keys in Stace 4th edition 

Either obtain confirmation from a County Recorder before submitting a record, or submit detailed images showing key features.  We recommend that you take and retain a specimen; the County Recorder may wish to see this for confirmation. 

Grows in open conditions on light, well-drained soils. It occurs on waste and cultivated ground, in gravel- and sand-pits and on tracks in conifer plantations. It is sometimes also found in lawns and on walls. Lowland.

A spring flowering species, disappearing without much trace by mid-summer.

Annual.

Widespread but local in Southern Britain, and mainly coastal further north and in Scotland.

Near scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland, but is very insignificant and may be overlooked at times.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but improved recording since then has meant it is found in more sites than previously known, and does not meet the criteria for the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)