Kingdom Plantae Family Caryophyllaceae Scientific name Minuartia stricta Rank Species | Order Caryophyllales Genus Minuartia Higher classification Minuartia | |
Similar Minuartia, Minuartia rubella, Caryophyllaceae, Minuartia nuttallii, Minuartia groenlandica |
Teesdale sandwort minuartia stricta
Minuartia stricta is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common names bog stitchwort, Teesdale sandwort and rock sandwort. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout much of the northernmost Northern Hemisphere from the lower Arctic into the alpine climates of mountainous areas in temperate Eurasia and North America. It grows in several types of habitat, including meadows, marshes, heath, beaches and bars, and arctic and alpine tundra.
This is a small, mat-forming perennial herb just a few centimeters high. The green or purplish, hairless, needlelike leaves are no more than a centimeter long and barely over a millimeter wide. The thin, flowering stems are sometimes erect, bearing tiny flowers with pointed sepals just a few millimeters long. The flowers often lack petals, or may have rudimentary petals no longer than the sepals.