Low baby's breath (Gypsophila muralis)

Description: Introduced via the garden trade and occasionally escapes cultivation.

Habit: Capable of reaching a height of 2-12 inches.

Leaves: Opposite, lance-linear, pointed at the tip, stalkless at the base, toothless, hairless, lower leaves up to 1 in. long, less than 1/8th in. wide, becoming smaller as they ascend the stem.

Stems: Slender, heavily branched with forking branches, sparsely and minutely hairy near the base and hairless above.

Flowers: Single, borne at the tips of branching stems, on slender stalks from upper leave axils. 1/4 - 3/8 in. across, 5 petals, pink to lavender in color with dark streaks, fused at the base into a slender tube.

Fruit and seeds: Oval-elliptic capsule, 1/8 in. long. Splits into 4 lobes with numberous tiny, blackish, snail shell shaped seeds covered in minute bumps.

Habitat: Native to Europe. Can be found growing in lawns, gardens, sidewalk cracks, waste areas, roadsides and railroads.

Reproduction: By seed or vegetatively by cuttings.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from Minnesota Wildflowers.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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