Upright Chickweed - Moenchia erecta

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Description

A very short, erect, white flowered plant with greyish glaucous leaves. 4 petals, unlike other plants in this family.

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

4 petals

Recording advice

Close-up of flowers and general photo of plant in habitat. (RPR) 

Habitat

Sandy habitats such as sandy grassland and dunes.

When to see it

Flowers April to June.

Life History

Annual

UK Status

Occasional in Britain.

VC55 Status

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 5 of the 617 tetrads, and and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 1 tetrads

In the current checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Rare, dry heath-grassland. 

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce 
  • David Nicholls
    Hill Hole
    27 May 2016
  • Mark Skevington
    Croft Pasture
    13 April 2021
  • Graham Calow
    Croft Pasture
    16 April 2014
  • Graham Calow
    Croft Pasture
    16 April 2014
  • David Nicholls
    Croft Hill
    03 May 2013
    white-edged sepals
  • Graham Calow
    Croft Pasture
    06 May 2013
  • David Nicholls
    Croft Pasture
    09 May 2014
    seeding
  • Mark Skevington
    Croft Pasture
    13 April 2021

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species data profile ?

Species profile

Common names
Upright Moenchia, Upright Chickweed, Dwarf Chickweed
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Caryophyllaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
7
First record:
03/05/2013 (Nicholls, David)
Last record:
13/04/2021 (Skevington, Mark)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.

In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.

Latest images

Latest records

  • Graham Calow
    Croft Pasture
    06 May 2013
  • David Nicholls
    Hill Hole
    27 May 2016
  • David Nicholls
    Hill Hole
    27 May 2016
  • Graham Calow
    Croft Pasture
    16 April 2014
  • David Nicholls
    Croft Hill
    03 May 2013
  • David Nicholls
    Croft Hill
    03 May 2013
  • AJ Cann
    Croft Pasture
    17 April 2019
  • AJ Cann
    Croft Pasture
    17 April 2019
  • Mark Skevington
    Croft Pasture
    13 April 2021
  • Mark Skevington
    Croft Pasture
    13 April 2021