Greater STICHWORT : Stellaria holostea
Other common names include 'wedding cakes', 'Star-of-Bethlehem', 'daddy's-shirt-buttons' and 'snapdragon' - the latter because its stems are brittle and easily break.
Greater stitchwort grows in woodland and along roadside verges, hedgerows and grassy banks. Our example comes from the RSPB Loch Lomond reserve.
Greater stitchwort has five white petals. Before you shout that flower has ten, look closely and you will see that the five petals are each strongly divided in two, so giving an apparent appearance of double the number. The flowers of the Greater Stichwort are 2-3cm across (while its smaller relative, the Lesser stitchwort 0.5-1cm across).
Its green leaves look much liek grass. Its brittle stems are square.
Count the petals.
Not ten petals, but five deeply divided to look double the number.
WILDLIFE TRUSTS : https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/greater-stitchwort
