Silene acaulis |
Silene hookeri |
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moss campion, silène acaule |
Hooker's campion, Hooker's catchfly, Hooker's Indian pink, Hooker's silene |
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Habit | Plants perennial, mat- or cushion-forming, subglabrous; taproot stout; caudex much-branched, becoming woody. | Herbs, perennial; caudex much-branched, thick and woody. | ||||
Stems | solitary or numerous, decumbent and rooting at base, becoming erect, 5–14(–25) cm, with gray, soft, curly to retrorsely crispate pubescence, rarely glandular. |
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Flowering stems | erect, leafy proximally, 3–6(–15) cm, old leaves persistent at base. |
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Leaves | mostly basal, densely crowded and imbricate, sessile; blade 1(–3)-veined, linear-subulate to lanceolate, 0.4–1(–1.5) cm × 0.8–1.5(–2) mm, margins cartilaginous, often ciliolate especially proximally, apex acute, glabrous to scabrous. |
blade spatulate or narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, sometimes broadly so, 4–7(–10) cm × 8–12(–20) mm, reduced toward base, apex acute, pubescent on both surfaces, especially on midrib; subterranean bractlike, papery. |
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Inflorescences | solitary flowers. |
reduced to single, terminal flower or open, (1–)3–5(–9)-flowered cyme, bracteate; bracts leaflike, reduced distally to ca. 1 cm. |
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Pedicels | 2–40 mm. |
ascending, straight, 1–6 cm, with a short canescence. |
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Flowers | bisexual or unisexual, all plants having both staminate and pistillate flowers, others having only pistillate flowers, subsessile or borne singly on peduncle; calyx 10-veined, lateral veins absent, tubular to campanulate, (5–)7–10 mm, herbaceous, margins often purple tinged, dentate, sometimes ciliate, ± scarious, glabrous, lobes lanceolate to ovate, 1–2 mm; petals bright pink, rarely white, limb unlobed to shallowly 2-fid, 2.5–3.5 mm, base tapered into claw, auricles and appendages poorly developed; stamens exserted in staminate flowers, not so or aborted in pistillate flowers; styles 3. |
calyx 10-veined, broadly tubular in flower, 12–25 5–8 mm, turbinate in fruit and swelling in middle to ca. 10 mm broad, canescent, rarely sparsely pubescent or glandular; lobes lanceolate, 4–7 mm, with narrow, membranous margins, apex acute; corolla coral pink or white, clawed, claw equaling calyx; limb 4-lobed, usually deeply so, rarely 2-lobed with smaller lateral teeth, lobes 7–22 mm, appendages 2, linear, 1.5–3.5 mm (absent in subsp. bolanderi); stamens slightly longer than corolla claw; stigmas 3, slightly longer than corolla claw. |
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Capsules | 3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth; carpophore ca. 1 mm. |
ovoid to oblong, equaling calyx, dehiscing by 6 teeth; carpophore 2–5 mm. |
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Seeds | light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose. |
dark brown to black, reniform, ca. 2 mm broad, with concentric rings of small papillae. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Silene acaulis |
Silene hookeri |
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Phenology | Flowering early summer. | |||||
Habitat | Arctic and alpine tundra, gravelly, often wet places, rocky ledges | |||||
Elevation | 0-4200 m (0-13800 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CO; ID; ME; MT; NH; NM; NV; NY; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; YT; Greenland; Europe; Asia (Russian Far East)
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CA; OR
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Discussion | Silene acaulis is a variable species, and most workers have recognized infraspecific taxa in North America: subsp. acaulis (subsp. exscapa and subsp. arctica), which is predominantly arctic; and subsp. subacaulescens, which extends down the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico. In subsp. acaulis, the leaves are flat and short and the flowers are subsessile and smaller in size. Subspecies subacaulescens is typically a larger, less-compact plant with longer, narrower leaves and larger, pedunculate flowers. However, in many populations, these two variants are poorly differentiated, and in others both occur together, connected by intermediates. Silene acaulis is widely distributed in arctic and alpine Europe. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 173. | FNA vol. 5, p. 186. | ||||
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Caryophylloideae > Silene | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Caryophylloideae > Silene | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Cucubalus acaulis, S. acaulis subsp. arctica, S. acaulis var. exscapa, S. acaulis subsp. subacaulescens, S. exscapa, Xamilensis acaulis | |||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Jacquin: Enum. Stirp. Vindob., 78, 242. (1762) | Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 193. (1838) | ||||
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