Common Chickweed, Stellaria media

Some plants grow tall or have large showy flowers but others are more subtle. Common Chickweed falls in the latter category.

Common Chickweed, Stellaria media, is a lowly and unspectacular annual plant but it is probably growing near where you live and it is likely to be in flower at the moment.

Starry Flowers

Common Chickweed is well worth a closer look. Seen close up, the starry white flowers, growing against a background of pale green leaves, are rather beautiful. Each  flower has five bifid petals (i.e. split into two), making it look like there are ten. Behind the petals are five green sepals. Towards the centre of the flower are the anthers (which can vary in number from three to as many as eight) and the pistil at the centre (note 1).

Stellaria media is a member of the Pink family, the Caryophyllaceae, along with other plants that I’ve already written about (Spanish Catchfly, Spring Sandwort and Small-flowered Catchfly) and others I haven’t yet, such as campions (Silene and Lychnis) and carnations / pinks (Dianthus).

A single Common Chickweed flower. Five sepals, five bifid petals and five stamens (though there can be as few as three and as many as eight) . There is an unopened flower bud to the right of the photograph.

In the last fortnight I’ve seen Common Chickweed all over the place on disturbed, open ground: in our garden, on the allotment and, while on walks and bike rides in the Norfolk countryside, on field edges and road verges.

Almost Ubiquitous

This isn’t just true for Norfolk, for Stellaria media is found in almost every 10km square throughout the British Isles. It finds a home in a wide range of disturbed and artificial habitats. These include gardens and arable fields, farmyards, roadsides, on waste ground, walls and brownfield sites, and on refuse tips. Common Chickweed also grows on shingle banks and where farm animals and deer have poached the soil.

Stellaria media is a native in the British Isles and throughout Europe and much of Asia and North Africa. It has been introduced into much of North America, Central and South America, many southern African countries, New Zealand, New Guinea and New Caledonia. In the tropics Stellaria media is usually confined to higher altitudes, as in Colombia, where it is one of the most aggressive weeds at 2600 metres above sea level.

It is hardly surprising that such a common plant as Common Chickweed is known a variety of names. English, Scottish and Irish names include: Star-of-Bethlehem, Chickenweed, Chickenwort, Chuckenwort, Craches, Flewort, Hen’s Inheritance, Maruns, Tongue Grass, White Bird’s-eye, Winterweed, Chick Wittles, Cluckenweed, Mischievous Jack, Murren, and Skirt Buttons.

Stellaria is derived from the word “stella” meaning “star”(because of the shape of the flowers) and media is Latin for “between”, “intermediate”, or “mid-sized”.

Lifecycle

Common Chickweed can flower in any month of the year but here in East Anglia the peak of flowering is from March to June. Seeds often germinate in autumn and plants over-winter. Stellaria media tolerates harsh winters and can photosynthesise and grow even at temperatures below 5 degrees Celsius. It will produce flowers and seeds even in the coldest months and we often see the earliest flowers in early January on a New Year’s Plant Hunt in our local cemetery. The flowers may only open for one day, to be pollinated by insects, or stay closed and self-pollinate (this is known as cleistogamy). The seeds also germinate in spring and the plants grow rapidly as the weather warms and the amount of daylight increases, producing flowers and seeds in as little as five weeks from germination.

Common Chickweed often grows with other annuals with a similar growth cycles, such as Red Deadnettles, which I have already written about.

Common Chickweed (Stellaria media) with Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) on the allotment.

Stellaria media is a very successful plant and for that reason not everyone likes it. Writing in the early 1970s in “Food For Free” Richard Mabey says “Chickweed must, after bindweed, be the gardener’s most hated weed. Tons of it are incinerated every year” (note 2).

Common Chickweed doesn’t have deep, spreading roots like the bindweeds but it certainly other weedy characteristics: fast growth and a high reproductive rate. A single plant can produce 2,000 to 13,000 seeds and these are transported to other sites on boots, hooves and birds’ feet. Various birds and mammals also eat and excrete the seeds.

Any seeds that don’t germinate straightaway enter the seed bank in the soil and can remain viable for many years. In an American study in the first half of the twentieth century, 22% of seeds were still capable of germinating after nine years and some sources even claim they can remain viable for up to 60 years. Common Chickweed can have up to five generations in a year, if the summer isn’t too hot and dry.  It dies back in hot summers, where it benefits from a bit of shade. It doesn’t like acid soils (below pH 5.0) and thrives where soil nitrogen levels are high and levels of phosphates and lime are low.

Common Chickweed can compete with arable crops such as winter Oilseed Rape and Sugar Beet. Fortunately it has shallow roots (unlike bindweed) and in a garden or on the allotment it is easy to remove using a hand fork. However, it forms a mat of vegetation and this allows it to compete with smaller plants and I find that the tangle of stems becomes difficult to remove without pulling up small vegetable seedlings at the same time. There’s also some evidence that the plant produces chemicals to inhibit the germination of its competitors. (Note 3).

But timing is everything. During the growing season, I mainly treat Common Chickweed as a weed. However, in late autumn and winter it becomes a very useful plant. Growing on bare soil it acts as a green manure crop, protecting the soil surface from winter rains and snow and reducing soil compaction and nutrient loss. I dig it and other annual “weeds” into the soil in early spring and they then act as a soil improver, adding organic matter. The advantage over sown green manure crops is that this doesn’t cost a penny (note 4).

Stellaria media may also be useful in the war on other unwanted plants: Garden Organic’s “The biology and non-chemical control of Common chickweed (Stellaria media L.)” reports that a ground cover of Common Chickweed was used to suppress Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) in vineyards.

Food For Free

One way of dealing with a surfeit of Common Chickweed is to eat it.

Common Chickweed forms an important part of the diet of several farmland birds including Grey Partridge, Linnet, Tree Sparrow, Bullfinch and Reed Bunting. It is the foodplant of several species of moth, including the Yellow Shell.

As the name suggests, Common Chickweed can be used to feed hens and when I was a child in Scotland we raised frog tadpoles on a regular supply of fresh Common Chickweed leaves (note 5).

Humans can eat Common Chickweed too. Since Common Chickweed is abundant and fast growing it is surely the ultimate in sustainable foods.

Fresh leaves make a pleasant and nutritious addition to a salad. The Wild Food UK website says the taste is “usually compared to lettuce but we think it has a delicate taste of its own.” I pick whole tops, because removing individual leaves is fiddly. I think the taste is pleasant, especially in a mixed salad. In “The Edible City” John Rensten gives a recipe for “A seasonal chickweed salad with very early spring leaves and flowers”. He adds a vinaigrette dressing to leaves of Common Chickweed, Ox-eye Daisy, Hairy Bittercress, Crow Garlic and Fennel, and Primrose flowers (note 6).

I think I can detect a slight soapiness to Common Chickweed leaves, but possibly only because I know that the plants contain mildly toxic saponins (note 7).

Saponins are broken down by thorough cooking. I haven’t tried cooking Common Chickweed but according to the Plants For A Future website “the cooked leaves can scarcely be distinguished from spring spinach“, which is praise indeed. Richard Mabey suggests cooking sprigs of Common Chickweed with butter, seasoning and chopped onions. “Simmer gently for about ten minutes, turning all the time. Finish off with a dash of lemon juice or a sprinkling of grated nutmeg”. This is apparently very good with rich meat (note 2). Common Chickweed is also one of the ingredients in the Japanese Festival of Seven Herbs (Nanakusa-no-sekku) .

Stellaria media seeds contain 17.8% protein and 5.9% fat and can be ground to a powder and added to bread or soups, but collecting them is only for those with time, patience and manual dexterity.

For safety’s sake, avoid eating very large quantities of Common Chickweed (note 7) and don’t pick it from the edges of paths (because of dogs) or roads (because of pollution from traffic). I would also avoid arable fields away from organic farms (pesticide pollution).

Medicine too…

Common Chickweed has a number of herbal uses. It can be used in the external treatment of any kind of itching skin condition, as a cream or infusion in bath water. I tried it several years ago when I had eczema on my hands and it was better than most of the other creams I tried (although eventually a cream using colloidal oatmeal proved to be the answer).

Common Chickweed has also been used to make an eyewash and has been taken internally to treat chest complaints and aid digestion – though it should not be taken by pregnant women or in too large a quantity (note 7).

Further Reading – and pictures

If you want to know more about Common Chickweed, I thoroughly recommend “Plant of the Week, 6th February 2023-Common Chickweed, Stellaria media (L.) Vill.” on the Botany In Scotland blog. It also includes some great pictures of Common Chickweed, as does the wonderful Wild Flower Finder website.

Notes

Note 1 – See Mike Crewe’s Flora of East Anglia website for some good comparison photographs of different species of Stellaria (Chickweeds and Stitchworts) in our region.

The genus is described on pages 488 – 489 of the “New Flora of the British Isles“ by Clive Stace (Fourth Edition, 2019). There are nine species in the British Isles. Stellaria media has 3 – 5 (8) stamens, whereas its close relatives Stellaria pallida has 1 – 2 (3) stamens and Stellaria neglecta has ten. Seed size is another useful characteristic for separating these three species.

Stellaria pallida (Lesser Chickweed) is a small and short-lived annual, with sickly-looking yellow foliage. It grows on bare sandy soils on coastal dunes and inland. Stellaria neglecta (Greater Chickweed) is an annual or perennial. It usually grows more upright and is larger than Stellaria media and prefers shady, damp places. Stellaria media is normally an annual but can sometimes be a short-lived perennial.

There are also some larger, prettier species, such as Stellaria holostea (Greater Stitchwort), which brightens up hedgerows and woodlands in May with its larger white flowers. It is a favourite of mine – I must write about it some day.

Note 2 – “Food For Free” by Richard Mabey (Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1972). The classic guide to foraging – and still in print. (My copy is my Mum’s 1975 Fontana paperback edition.) Hopefully today’s gardeners are composting it rather than incinerating it: green plant material gives off lots of unpleasant smoke when burnt.

Note 3 – For further reading on Common Chickweed as a weed, see “Plant of the Week, 6th February 2023-Common Chickweed, Stellaria media (L.) Vill.“, “Distribution and biology of common chickweed in the UK” and “The biology and non-chemical control of Common chickweed (Stellaria media L.)“.

Note 4 – Deep digging isn’t required as long as you cover the Common Chickweed plants with a layer of soil. If you don’t, they’ll keep on growing if they’ve only been partly buried. Fragments of stem can sometimes root too.

I do buy green manure seeds as well: Grazing Rye, Winter Tares and Fodder Beans do well on my allotment.

I leave patches of Red Deadnettles for spring bees. And Common Chickweed around the edges of the plot, where it isn’t causing a problem: after all, I’m not a monster.

Note 5 – Common Chickweed worked until the tadpoles developed back legs and become carnivorous. The Fishkeeping World article “What do Tadpoles Eat: In the Wild and as Pets” gives a much wider range of foods.

Note 6 – Page 35 in “The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food” by John Rensten (Boxtree, 2016).

Note 7 – Saponins in Common Chickweed are slightly toxic but are very poorly absorbed by the body and mainly pass through the gut without causing harm. An excess dose of Common Chickweed can cause diarrhoea and vomiting but you would have to eat a very large quantity to cause harm (as much as your own body weight). The Plants For A Future website warns women not to consume plants containing saponins during pregnancy or during breastfeeding.

The roots of Common Chickweed’s relative Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, contain up to 20% saponins, leading to the plant’s use as a gentle soap.