Family: Caryophyllaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Elevation range exceeds 1000 m, demonstrating environmental versatility
  
• Broad native and introduced distribution (environmentally versatile)
  
• Widely naturalized
  
• Weed of lawns and gardens
  
• Weed of several crops
  
• Other Stellaria species are invasive
  
• Potentially allelopathic
  
• Potentially toxic to animals (through accumulation of nitrates)
  
• Alternate host of crop pathogens
  
• Shade-tolerant
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Reproduces by seeds and vegetatively
  
• Self-compatible
  
• Able to reach maturity in under one year
  
• Can spread by rooting at nodes
  
• Seeds dispersed stuck to footwear, as a produce contaminant, by wind, birds and through the digestive tract of grazing animals
  
• Prolific seed production
  
• Forms a persistent seed bank

Low Risk Traits:

• Impacts to natural areas unknown or not documented
  
• Unarmed (no spines, thorns or burrs)
  
• Provides fodder for livestock (palatable despite reports of toxicity)
  
• Herbicides, mowing and fire may provide effective control