Leaves cauline or in a basal tuft, sessile or petiolate, margins occasionally ciliate; stipules absent.
Flowers in terminal cymes or solitary in the upper leaf axils. Bracts herbaceous to scarious. Sepals free, acute to obtuse, usually 3-veined; margins scarious. Petals absent or present, bifid, white. Stamens 1–10. Ovary 1-locular; styles 3.
Some of the native taxa have not yet been adequately delimited.
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Internodes with a line of hairs running between nodes, otherwise glabrous | 2 |
| Internodes entirely glabrous or with scattered long hairs, without a line of hairs running between the nodes | 3 |
| 2 | Leaves 5–35(-40) mm long, 3–13 mm wide, sessile above, petiolate below; petals present or occasionally absent; sepals 4–7 mm long;; stamens 3–5; seeds dark brown | Stellaria media |
| Leaves (6-)10–20 mm long, 2–4(-8.5) mm wide, usually all petiolate; petals absent; sepals 2.5–3.5(-4.5) mm long; stamens1–3; seeds yellow to mid brown
Back to 1 | Stellaria pallida |
| 3 | Petals absent | 4 |
| Petals present
Back to 1 | 5 |
| 4 | Leaves narrow-ovate to lanceolate, with or without a petiole, or narrow-spathulate; sepals triangular to subulate, flat; capsule valves thin-walled, recurved, smooth | Stellaria multiflora |
| Leaves linear, all sessile; sepals obovate, apex acuminate, concave; capsule valves thick-walled, not recurved, tuberculate
Back to 3 | Stellaria papillata |
| 5 | Flowers 10 or more in terminal cymes | 6 |
| Flowers solitary in the leaf axils, rarely in 3-flowered terminal cymes
Back to 3 | 8 |
| 6 | Leaves linear-lanceolate to narrow-elliptic, cauline; bracts ciliate | Stellaria graminea |
| Leaves filiform, crowded in a basal tuft, sometimes with a few small upper leaves; bracts with smooth margins
Back to 5 | 7 |
| 7 | Bracts scarious or rarely herbaceous with wide scarious margins; flowers on filiform pedicels c. 12 mm long; calyx base tapering to pedicel | Stellaria filiformis |
| Bracts all herbaceous; flowers on pedicels 1–3 mm long; junction of calyx base and pedicel abrupt
Back to 6 | Stellaria multiflora |
| 8 | Leaves ovate to lanceolate, petiolate; capsule distinctly longer than calyx | Stellaria flaccida |
| Leaves linear to narrow-lanceolate, sessile; capsule usually shorter than, rarely scarcely exceeding, calyx
Back to 5 | 9 |
| 9 | Leaves pungent, rigid, folded, usually recurved; sepals rigid, pungent, usually with long multicellular hairs | Stellaria pungens |
| Leaves obtuse to acute, not rigid, flat, occasionally recurved; sepals obtuse to acute, glabrous to scabrous
Back to 8 | 10 |
| 10 | Small mat-forming plants; leaves (2-)3–5.5(-7) mm long; fruiting pedicels 3–10 mm long; sepals (1.3-)1.7–3.2 mm long | Stellaria angustifolia |
| Larger erect to scrambling plants, often tufted; leaves (4.8-)10–50(-55) mmlong; fruiting pedicels 10–60 mm long; sepals (1.5-)3–8(-10) mm long
Back to 9 | Stellaria angustifolia |
