Sabatia stellaris
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Photo Courtesy Renee Brecht |
Britton & Brown |
| Botanical name: | Sabatia Stellaris |
| Common name: | saltmarsh pink |
| Group: | dicot |
| Family: | Campanulaceae |
| Growth type: | forb/herb |
| Duration: | perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Plant height: | 6-20" |
| Foliage: | leaves entire, elliptical, narrowed at the base |
| Flower: | pink flowers, 5 petals, occasionally 6, with a yellow star in the middle, outlined in magenta. |
| Flowering time: | bloom late July to late September; fruit August to October |
| Habitat: | saline or brackish waters of tidal marshes |
| Range in New Jersey: | throughout the coast strip and the Delaware Bay shore |
| Heritage ranking, if any: | n/a |
| Distribution: |  |
| Misc.: | S. stellaris is sometimes found in white, and occasionally with 6 rather than 5 corolla lobes (petals). Stone, in 1910, says "This is one of the most abundant and characteristic flowering plants of the salt meadows, and its starry pink blooms with their yellow eye do much to produce that great profusion of color which marks the edge of the marshes toward the end of summer. Their stems and leaves are somewhat inconspicuous, and it sometimes looks as if the pink stars might have been scattered broadcast over the low coarse grass and rushes of the meadows. White flowered plants occur occasionally and starved dwarf individuals are sometimes found."(639) |