Annual to perennial herbs, erect or spreading. Leaves linear, opposite or in 3s or clusters, fleshy; stipules conspicuous, papery. Flowers in terminal clusters. Sepals 5, free, with papery edges. Petals entire, white or pink. Stamens to 10. Styles 3. Fruit a capsule opening by 3 teeth; seeds sometimes winged.
A group of 4 wayside and garden weeds. Spergularia media has flattened, generally winged seeds. Of the species with angled or convex unwinged seeds S. diandra has black seed, the other two brown seeds; S. marina has purple markings at the base of the sepals
and 2-5 stamens, while S. rubra has 6-10 stamens.
Stipules inconspicuous; capsule with 5 teeth.
About 60 species cosmopolitan but mostly European.
Source: (1997). Caryophyllaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
