FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Cerastium cerastoides, starwort mouse-ear

Cerastium cerastoides; The starwort mouse-ear grows almost everywhere on Iceland except for the wet soils of the southern coastal regions and the coastal regions NW of Borgarness. The flowers are typically mouse-earlike (bilobed white petals). This species differs from all other mouse-ears by the trailing stems (other mouse-ears have upright stems) and the peculiar leaf spacing: As the stem grows horizontally over the ground the opposite leaf-pairs bend upwards. The plants are often red-coloured. It is a common Icelandic species.
It is a member of the Pink family (Caryophyllaceae).

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