ID this little white flower?

July 16, 2008 9:40 AM

Flower Identification filter: What is this plant?

I planted a bunch of seeds in early June, including a couple of packets of wildflower seeds (one was Zipcar promo swag, of all things) that weren't identified. This little white one started blooming last week and I have no idea what it is. I've searched all over the Internets to no avail. It looks a bit like white flax, but I've determined that it isn't.

posted by MaudB to home & garden (7 comments total)

Since it's on Flickr already, you might as well put it in the "ID Please" pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/idplease/
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:13 AM on July 16, 2008

Looks like a variety of verbena. Here's a picture of moss verbena, to compare the way the flower looks, but the "moss" varieties are usually lower to the ground.
posted by amyms at 10:22 AM on July 16, 2008

Looks to me like it could be type of chickweed (Cerastium) - they grow in the wild and have five white petals with a notch in them. I can't say for sure from your photo which it is. There are many different chickweeds and even subspecies of certain chickweeds exist too. Here's a page on one of them, Field Chickweed/Cerastium arvense that might help you decide, or at least point you in a direction...?
posted by onoclea at 10:31 AM on July 16, 2008

Tough to say without a better look at the leaves, but it looks to me like a variety of miners lettuce (Montia or Lewisia). Almost definitely in that family.
posted by dan g. at 10:54 AM on July 16, 2008

From what I can see of the leaves, I'm seconding cerastium arvense.
posted by lleachie at 11:39 AM on July 16, 2008

Thank you! I think Chickweed is probably right. I've added a few more photos that show the leaves better, and one close-up - at least as close as I could get with my camera and poor skills - of the flowers.
Is Chickweed always a "weed," or is it planted deliberately sometimes as a "wildflower"? Because I do get quite a few plants growing in my containers, brought via the birds and the wind, I suppose, up here on the 4th floor, so it could be one of those.
posted by MaudB at 1:26 PM on July 16, 2008

I will bet it was in the wildflower packet, because cerastium arvense is more upright than many of the other more common chickweeds (like mouse-ear chickweed, which grows in mats).
posted by lleachie at 2:10 PM on July 16, 2008