Sagina saginoides - Alpine Pearlwort

Alpine Pearlwort is a perennial herb about 2-7 cm tall, clustered, stem prostrate or rising up, few to much branched from the base, hairless. Leaves are simple, linear, about 4-13 x 1-2.5 mm, base slightly fused, margin entire, tip apiculate, rarely aristate, not fleshy, hairless. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils or at branch-ends, solitary. Flowers are bisexual, flower-stalk spreading or erect in fruit, recurved in capsular development, hairless, about 8-25 mm long, bracts paired, leaf-like. Petals are 4, free, white, ovate-ellipic, margins entire, tip blunt, equal or shorter than the sepals. Stamens 5-10, filaments distinct. Sepals are 4, free, distinct, ovate, margins narrow scarious, tip blunt, greenish, hairless, about 1.5-2 mm long. Fruit is a capsule, spherical-ovoid, about 2.5-3.5 mm long, splitting to the base, about 1.5-2 times longer than the persistent sepals. Alpine Pearlwort is found throughout the Temperate Northern Hemisphere to the Himalayas, at altitudes of 1400-4200 m. Flowering: April-May.