The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chickweed \Chick"weed`\ (-w[=e]d`), n. (Bot.) The name of several caryophyllaceous weeds, especially Stellaria media, the seeds and flower buds of which are a favorite food of small birds.
Wikipedia
Stellaria media, chickweed, is a cool-season annual plant native to Europe, but naturalized in many parts of North America. It is used as a cooling herbal remedy, and grown as a vegetable crop and ground cover for both human consumption and poultry. It is sometimes called common chickweed to distinguish it from other plants called chickweed. Other common names include chickenwort, craches, maruns, winterweed. The plant germinates in autumn or late winter, then forms large mats of foliage. Flowers are small and white, followed quickly by the seed pods. This plant flowers and sets seed at the same time.
Usage examples of "stellaria media".
Several plants have been named Chickweed, one of them a plant belonging to the Purslane family and four species of Cerastium -the Mouse Ear Chickweeds - but the name especially belongs to the plant in question, Stellaria media, the ubiquitous garden weed, of which our caged birds are as fond as they are of Groundsel, a taste shared by young chickens, to whose diet it makes a wholesome addition.