Sagina maxima A. Gray

Chinese plants belong to subsp. maxima .

Plants annual or perennial, tufted, glabrous or glandular-pubescent. Stems spreading to decumbent or procumbent, much-branched, stout, rarely filiform, distal portion glandular-pubescent. Leaves: axillary fascicles absent; basal rosette or tuft of ascending leaves usually present; basal blades linear, 10-30 mm, succulent, apex apiculate, glabrous; cauline leaves conspicuously connate basally, forming shallow, scarious cup, blade linear, fleshy, apex apiculate, glabrous; proximal blades 6-15(-20) mm, distal blades rarely subulate, (2.5-)3.5-7(-9) mm. Pedicels slender to stout, glabrous or glandular-pubescent distally. Flowers axillary, 5-merous; calyx bases glabrous or glandular-pubescent; sepals ovate to orbiculate, (2-)2.5-3.5 mm, hyaline margins whitish, occasionally purple tinged on margins or apex, apex obtuse to rounded, glabrous or glandular-pubescent, remaining appressed following capsule dehiscence; petals elliptic to nearly orbiculate, (1.5-)2-2.5(-3) mm, shorter than sepals; stamens 10. Capsules (3-)3.5-4.5 mm, exceeding sepals, dehiscing ca. 1/4 length. Seeds reddish brown, reniform with abaxial groove absent, plump, 0.5 mm, smooth or slightly pebbled.

Herbs annual, sometimes perennial. Stems caespitose, erect or ascending, 4--8 cm tall, slender, basally branched, glabrous. Leaves linear, 4--6 × 0.7--1 mm, apex acuminate. Flower solitary, axillary. Pedicel slightly recurved after anthesis, erect in fruit, 4--25 mm, somewhat glandular hairy. Sepals 5, elliptic, 2--2.5 mm, abaxially glandular hairy. Petals 5, broadly ovate, slightly shorter than or subequaling sepals, basally clawed. Stamens 5. Styles 5. Capsule ovoid, longer than sepals, 5-valved. Seeds brown, reniform-globose, ca. 0.5 mm, not grooved, with short linear striae. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep. 2n = 22, 44.

Fields, rocky mountain slope meadows. Anhui, Liaoning, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang [Japan, Korea, Russia; North America].

Sagina litoralis Hultén.

Sagina maxima is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names stickystem pearlwort and thick-stemmed pearlwort. It is native to the west coast of North America from Alaska to California, where it can be found in many types of sandy and rocky coastal habitat. It is a small, fleshy perennial herb growing in a clump of linear leaves and thick stems. The fleshy, pointed leaves are 1 or 2 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a solitary flower with five sepals and five small white petals. There are two subspecies which differ mainly in the arrangement of hairs on the stem.