''Rabelera holostea'', known as greater stitchwort, greater starwort, and addersmeat, is a perennial herbaceous

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family (biology), family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranth ...

. It was formerly placed in the genus ''

Stellaria ''Stellaria'' is a genus of about 190 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort, stitchwort and chickweed. Description ''Stellaria'' species are relatively small ...

'', as ''Stellaria holostea'', but was transferred to the genus ''Rabelera'' in 2019 based on phylogenetic analyses. It is the only species in the genus ''Rabelera''. Greater stitchwort is native to

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

, including the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. Greater stichwort can be found in woodlands, edges, and open fields and is sometimes grown in gardens.

Description

Greater stitchwort can grow up to in height, with roughly 4-angled stems. The long, narrow (

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

) leaves are greyish green, hairless, sessile, opposite, and

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...

(the successive pairs borne at right angles to each other). The flowers are white, across, with five petals split to about halfway the length of the petal. The sepals are much shorter than the petals.

Taxonomy

Etymology

The specific epithet holostea comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''holosteon'', meaning 'entire bone'; a reference to the brittleness of the weak stems of this plant.Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Book 27. Chapter 65
/ref>

Common names

The common name stitchwort is a reference to a herbal remedy in which this plant is used allegedly to cure side stitch, which afflicts many people when they try to run without stretching first. Other common names for ''Rabelera holostea'' include: daddy's-shirt-buttons, poor-man's buttonhole, brassy buttons, wedding cakes, star-of-Bethlehem, and snapdragon. Many of these names are in reference to the stems, which easily break.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q93997618, from2=Q94303275, from3=Q157452 Caryophyllaceae Flora of Europe Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus