Common Mouse-ear Chickweed
Cerastium fontanum
Not native to Mississippi. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 41%
- Height
- 6 inches–1.5 feet
- Soil moisture
- Somewhat dry to average
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Annual or perennial
Not yet recorded · Spread · Light · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 6 Mississippi counties.
Who uses this plant?
4CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including MS
Genus host records with ranges including MS · Cerastium
- Agnorisma badinodisPale-Banded Dart
- Agrotis venerabilisVenerable Dart, Dusky Cut-Worm
- Hadena capsularisCapsule Moth
- Haematopis gratariaChickweed Geometer
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
6BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Cerastium
- Anser caerulescensSnow Goose
- Calcarius lapponicusLapland Longspur
- Callipepla californicaCalifornia Quail
- Falcipennis canadensisSpruce Grouse
- Lagopus leucuraWhite-tailed Ptarmigan
- Lagopus mutaRock Ptarmigan
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Plant details
- Family
- Caryophyllaceae
What its natural habitat tells you
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Height · “6 inches–1.5 feet” · Minnesota Wildflowers
- Life cycle · “Annual or perennial” · Minnesota Wildflowers
Also known as
Cerastium holosteoides var. vulgare; Common Mouse Ear Chickweed
Conservation status
| Mississippi rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | GNR |
| MS status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- NatureServe Explorer
- USDA PLANTS
- Mississippi occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications