I own half a dozen field guides to flowers. Yet not one of them includes sticky mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium glomeratum), originally native to Eurasia. Most of my guides begrudgingly include a few of the ten chickweed species found in Eastern North America, such as common chickweed (no surprise there). Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide includes eight species, but goes out of its way to put chickweeds in their place, describing them as “often weedy and insignificant.” Admittedly, the flowers are minute, and easily missed. But is it fair to ignore such a common flower as this one, considering how many of us might encounter it in our own backyards? I am still greatly enamored of native woodland wildflowers, like bloodroot and hepatica, trillium and trout lily. But none of these grows on my property, or even in the adjacent woodlots, while chickweed is everywhere. Apparently it is possible for a flower to be so common that it is overlooked.
But not today. Here is a photograph of the sticky mouse-ear chickweed, in all its glory, just coming into bloom along Piney Woods Church Road.
It is mid-March, and ruderals, Spring’s harbingers, can be seen blooming along the roadsides. Ruderals are plants that inhabit “disturbed ground” such as garden beds, lawns, and roadsides. They live a hardscrabble life on the margin, surviving despite passing feet, lawnmowers, and even herbicides. The most common ruderal (nearly always in bloom) is the dandelion. But there are many others, far less conspicuous.