Herb to Know: Chickweed

By Betsy Strauch
Published on June 1, 1998
article image
Photograph by J. G. Strauch, Jr.

• Stellaria media
• (Stuh-LARE-ee-uh MEE-dee-uh)
• Family Caryophyllaceae
• Annual herb

Widely known and despised as a weed, chickweed (Stellaria media) is also a nourishing salad green or potherb that’s available almost year-round in much of the country. It’s called chickweed because chickens love to eat the leaves and seeds, but it might just as well have been called rabbit­weed or goldfinchweed or quailweed–a long list of animals find it tasty. The generic name Stellaria comes from the Latin word stella, “star”, from the shape of the flowers; media is Latin for “medium”, referring to the size of the plant.

The genus Stellaria comprises about 120 species of annual and perennial herbs found throughout the world. S. media, probably native to Eurasia and now found wherever Europeans have traveled, is a low-growing annual (or sometimes a short-lived perennial) that may produce as many as five generations in a single growing season.

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