Stellaria umbellata

Umbellate starwort

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Umbellate starwort is a California native perennial found in northern California mountain regions including the North Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and Warner Mountains in moist meadows, rocky summits, and streamsides at elevations of 1,800 to 2,300 meters. Flowering during summer, this plant produces tiny flowers in small, umbel-like clusters with delicate white or near-white petals. Growing prostrate to erect with white rhizomes, it forms low-growing plants 2 to 20 centimeters tall with slender, glabrous stems. Its leaves are elliptic to ovate, 5 to 20 millimeters long, evenly spaced along the stem, with a shiny, flat surface and smooth margins. The plant produces small brown seeds approximately 0.6 to 0.7 millimeters long, with weak ribs on its sepals.

Habitat: Moist meadows, rocky summits, streamsides

Bloom period: Summer

Elevation: 1800-2300 m

Bioregions: NCoRH, NCoRI, CaRH, SNH, Wrn

California counties: Alpine, Fresno, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Tulare, Madera, Butte, El Dorado, Glenn, Inyo, Mono, Placer, Sierra, Tehama, Tuolumne, Plumas, Shasta, Trinity, Siskiyou, Mariposa

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.