Cerastium arabidis

Cerastium arabidis, commonly known as snow flower, is a slender, delicate perennial that reaches 30 cm in height. The stems are glandular-haired.

The oblong to narrowly ovate leaves are opposite and stalkless, joined at the base with no stipules. The blades are channelled above, their margins entire, the surfaces yellow-green with longish pale hairs mostly along the margins. Leaf dimensions are about 25 mm long by 7 mm wide.

The species distribution is in the far north of the inland Eastern Cape, the south and east of the Free State, inland KwaZulu-Natal and the provinces north of the Vaal River except North West. It also grows at least in Lesotho and Swaziland. The specific name, arabidis, refers to Arabia where the plant presumably also grows and provided the geographic association when the species was first described. The photo was taken near the Sani Pass.

The habitat is damp grassland among rocks and often along streambanks, at elevations between 1500 m and 3000 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Germishuizen and Clarke, 2003; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Pooley, 1998; Trauseld 1969; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).