Stellaria media (L.) Vill. - syn. Alsine media L. - Caryophyllaceae \\
(common) chickweed, **Vogelmiere**, Vogel-Sternmiere

Small herb, up to 30cm high, native to Europe and temperate Asia, naturalized worldwide; whole plant bright green; lower leaves petioled; sepals 2-5mm long, broad lanceolate; petals nearly as long as sepals or a few shorter, white; anthers mostly red-violet; seeds globose, 1mm, reddish-brown. \\
var. media: annual or biennial; leaves 1.5-2.5cm; sepals ca.4 mm; petals shorter than sepals \\
var. micrantha: perennial; leaves 0.8-1cm; sepals 2-2.5 mm; petals subequaling sepals \\
[[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200007072]]

"Stellaria media is edible and nutritious, and is used as a leaf vegetable, often raw in salads. It is one of the ingredients of the symbolic dish consumed in the Japanese spring-time festival, Nanakusa-no-sekku." [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellaria_media]] \\
[Ed. note:] The earthy-green (geosmin/pyrazine?) flavor of fresh plant parts resembles [[spinacia_oleracea_l|spinach]]

The fresh plant (Herba Alsines) is formerly externally used in folk medicine to treat skin problems, ekzema, haemorrhoids, and rheumatism. \\
[Hagers Handbuch der Pharmazeutischen Praxis, Springer 2010]

"Stellaria media is a weed of Indian subcontinent and can be used as various kinds of skin, metabolic and
gastrointestinal disorders." \\
[Pharmacognostic Study of the Stellaria media Roots., Shruti, S. et al., Inventi Rapid: Planta Activa, 2012]

S.media contained 12.0mg/g flavonoids, 18.0mg/g tannins and 23.8mg/g saponins. \\
[Secondary Metabolites, Antioxidant Status and Nutritive Composition of Two Non-Conventional Leafy Vegetables-Stellaria media L. and Chenopodium album L., Salam, J.S., Joylani, S.D., Rebika, N.D., Priyadarshini, S., Indian Journal of Agricultural Biochemistry, Vol.24(2), 2011, 136-140]

{{:vogelmiere.jpg?600}} \\
English Botany, or Coloured Figures of British Plants, ed. 3 [B] [J.E. Sowerby et al], vol. 2: t. 229 (1864) \\
[[http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=975281]]


{{http://www.botanische-spaziergaenge.at/Bilder/Konica_3/PICT5983.JPG}} \\
Stellaria media, Wien (Austria) © Rolf Marschner (2007), [[http://botanische-spaziergaenge.at/viewtopic.php?f=291&t=651| www.botanische-spaziergaenge.at]]