Silene campanulata |
Silene acaulis |
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bell catchfly, campanulate campion, red mountain catchfly, slender campion |
moss campion, silène acaule |
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Habit | Plants perennial; taproot stout; caudex much-branched, woody, producing many erect-to-straggling, little-branched flowering shoots. | Plants perennial, mat- or cushion-forming, subglabrous; taproot stout; caudex much-branched, becoming woody. | ||||
Stems | erect, 5–40 cm, softly pubescent to scabrous, eglandular or viscid-glandular, especially distally, very rarely glabrous, with several pairs of leaves equaling or shorter than internodes. |
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Flowering stems | erect, leafy proximally, 3–6(–15) cm, old leaves persistent at base. |
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Leaves | sessile, or basal with short pseudopetiole; blade linear to lanceolate or broadly ovate, base round to cuneate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, puberulent on both surfaces, sometimes glandular. |
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. |
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Inflorescences | usually with single dichotomy, rarely double, open, bracteate, branches often elongate, flowers 1 per node; bracts foliaceous. |
solitary flowers. |
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Pedicels | sharply reflexed at base, especially after anthesis, equaling calyx. |
2–40 mm. |
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Flowers | nodding; calyx obscurely 10-veined, broadly campanulate, lobed, 6–8 mm, enlarging to 13–16 mm in fruit, herbaceous, usually with short, dense pubescence throughout, often glandular-viscid, veins green, rarely purplish tinged, conspicuous pale commissures absent; lobes ovate-triangular, 1/2 to equaling tube, herbaceous; petals creamy white, often greenish abaxially, rarely pink tinged to dusky pink (subsp. campanulata), clawed, to 2 times calyx, claw villose, limb deeply divided and fan-shaped with many narrow, linear lobes, lobes rapidly curling, margins deeply divided or erose, appendages 2–4, to 2 mm; stamens exserted; filaments hairy at base; styles 3, to 2 times calyx. |
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. |
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Capsules | ovoid, ca. equaling calyx and often splitting it, opening by 6 broadly triangular teeth; carpophore 1–2.5 mm. |
3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth; carpophore ca. 1 mm. |
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Seeds | brown, reniform, 2–2.5 mm broad, coarsely and ± evenly papillate; papillae ca. as long as broad. |
light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Silene campanulata |
Silene acaulis |
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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 |
CA; OR
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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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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 176. | FNA vol. 5, p. 173. | ||||
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 | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 10: 341. (1875) | (Linnaeus) Jacquin: Enum. Stirp. Vindob., 78, 242. (1762) | ||||
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