Silene acaulis
Silene subciliata
moss campion, silène acaule
Louisiana catchfly, prairie-fire pink, scarlet catchfly
erect, scarcely branched, 20–100 cm, glabrous.
erect, leafy proximally, 3–6(–15) cm, old leaves persistent at base.
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 linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 3–16 cm × 3–12 mm, ± fleshy, base tapering into short petiole, apex acute, glabrous except for few cilia at base.
solitary flowers.
cymose, terminal and axillary, elongate, 1–3-flowered, open, bracteate, bracteolate, pedunculate;
peduncle slender, 2–10 cm;
bracts and bracteoles much-reduced, linear-lanceolate, often ciliate.
2–40 mm.
slender, 2–10 cm.
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 tubular, 17–22 × 4–5 mm in flower, broadening to 7 mm in fruit but contracted around carpophore, glabrous, lobes lanceolate, 3–4 mm, margins membranous and ciliate near broad, obtuse apex;
corolla scarlet, 2–21/2 times longer than calyx, limb lanceolate, narrowed into claw, 4–5 mm wide, margins entire or shallowly dentate, appendages linear, 4–5 mm;
stamens exserted;
styles 3, exserted.
3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth;
carpophore ca. 1 mm.
clavate, equaling calyx, opening by 6 teeth;
carpophore 3–4 mm.
light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose.
brown, broadly reniform, 2–2.3 mm, rugose.
= 24.
= 48.
Silene acaulis
Silene subciliata
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.)
Silene subciliata, a very rare species, is closely related to S. laciniata and S. virginica but is readily distinguished by its subglabrous stems and leaves and by having unlobed petals.
Silene subciliata is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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