Cerastium brachypetalum, commonly called gray chickweed, grey mouse-ear or gray mouse-ear chickweed, is a spring blooming annual plant species. It is native to Mediterranean and temperate Europe, the Caucasus, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. It has been introduced and naturalized in North America.
Cerastium brachypetalum is one of 101 species deemed high priorities for conservation in the UK by the wild flower and plant charity Plantlife.Plantlife website
Subspecies Ten subspecies are accepted. Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. atheniense – Greece (Attica) Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. balearicum – Balearic Islands Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. brachypetalum – France to central Europe, Scandinavia, southeastern Europe, and Morocco Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. corcyrense – northwestern Greece (Corfu) Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. doerfleri – Crete Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. iranicum – Iran Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. pindigenum – Albania and northern and central Greece Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. roeseri – Morocco and Algeria, Mediterranean Europe from Spain to Bulgaria, Turkey, and Cyprus Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. tauricum – Morocco, Mediterranean Europe, Crimea, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Western Asia Cerastium brachypetalum subsp. tenoreanum – France to Czechoslovakia, Greece, and Bulgaria
References
Milne-Redhead E. "Cerastium brachypetalum Pers in Britain" The Naturalist July Sept 1947: 95–96
Horn Peter C. "Cerastium brachypetalum in decline in Bedfordshire" BSBI News 65 18:20 (1994)
Horn Peter C. "The Decline and Conservation of Cerastium brachypetalum in Bedfordshire" The Bedfordshire Naturalist 48: 102 (1994)
Palmer J.R. "Cerastium brachypetalum - Status in West Kent" BSBI News 65: 21-22 (1994)
Horn Peter C. "Cerastium brachypetalum in a Bedfordshire Railway Cutting" BSBI News 101 25-26 (2006)