False Jagged Ckickweed

Although known in North America only since 1959, Lepyrodiclis holosteoides is a serious menace in pea and wheat plantings, where it grows quickly and often overtops the crops. It is listed as a noxious weed in Washington and Oregon; I am not aware of any documented occurrences in Oregon.

If Lepyrodiclis stellarioides Schrenk ex Fischer & C. A. Meyer is included as a variety of L. holosteoides (see Y. P. Kozhevnikov 1985), North American plants are var. holosteoides

This species is used medicinally.

Stems 40-100 cm, glabrous or papillate. Leaf blades 1-8 × 0.3-1 cm, margins glandular-dentate. Flowers: sepals 4-5 mm; petals 1-1.5 times as long as sepals. Capsules globose-ovoid, 3 mm, shorter than calyx. Seeds 1.8-2 mm. 2n = 34, 68 (both Asia).

Stems 40--100 cm tall, longitudinally striate, middle and distal internodes ca. 10 cm, glandular pubescent. Leaves linear-lanceolate, 3--7 cm × 2--5(--10) mm, adaxially pilose, densely so at midvein, base attenuate, margin glandular pubescent, apex acuminate. Panicle of cymes terminal or axillary, spreading; bracts lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, herbaceous. Pedicel 1--2 (--3) cm, slender, densely glandular pubescent. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 4--5 mm, abaxially sparsely glandular pubescent, margin narrowly membranous, apex acute. Petals white, broadly obovate, subequaling or slightly longer than sepals, margin entire. Styles 2. Capsule globose-ovoid, shorter than sepals, 2-valved. Seeds red-brown, compressed ovate. Fl. May--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug. 2n = 34, 68.

C. & W. Asia, Afghanistan, Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal), W. Tibet, Mongolia, N.W. China.

introduced; Idaho, Wash.; c, sw Asia; introduced in Europe (Germany), Asia (Japan).

Gansu, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan; C and SW Asia].

3900-4100 m

Flowering spring.

Disturbed areas, pea and wheat fields; 500-800m.

Mountain slope grasslands, farmland, wastegrounds, forest margins, ditch sides, Gobi Desert; 1200--4100 m.

Gouffeia holosteoides C. A. Meyer, Verz. Pfl. Casp. Meer., 217. 1831

Gouffeia holosteoides C. A. Meyer, Verz. Caucasus Pfl. 217. 1831; Arenaria holosteoides (C. A. Meyer) Edgeworth.