Silene acaulis
Silene repens
moss campion, silène acaule
creeping silene, pink campion
erect to straggling, branched or simple, leafy, 7–35 cm, retrorse-puberulent.
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.
2 per node, sessile, blade 1-veined, linear, lanceolate, or narrowly oblong, tapered to base, apex acute, puberulent on both surfaces.
solitary flowers.
cymose, compound, ca. (2–)5–20-flowered, usually compact, bracteate;
bracts narrowly lanceolate, 2–15 mm.
2–40 mm.
ascending, 0.1–1(–2) cm, shorter or longer than calyx, eglandular or with scattered glands, pubescence white, dense, short.
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 obscurely 10-veined, tubular-campanulate, 10–15 × 3–5 mm in flower, becoming clavate and 5–6 mm broad in fruit, herbaceous, villous, veins purple tinged or entirely purple, without conspicuous pale commissures, lobes ovate, 1–2.5 mm, margins broad, scarious, apex obtuse;
corolla rose pink, rarely white, clawed, claw equaling calyx, broadened distally, limb obconic, 2-lobed, 3–7 mm, appendages 0.7–1.2 mm;
stamens equaling calyx;
styles 3(–4), exserted.
3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth;
carpophore ca. 1 mm.
ovoid, equaling calyx, opening by 6 (or 8) spreading teeth;
carpophore 4–7 mm.
light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose.
grayish brown, not winged, reniform, 0.8–1 mm, rugose on sides, margins shortly papillate.
= 24.
= 24, 48.
Silene acaulis
Silene repens
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Three subspecies have been recognized within Silene repens on the basis of stature and the development of purple pigment in the calyx. Northern populations in the flora area have been referred to subsp. purpurata because of the unusually heavy pigment of the calyx, while the disjunct populations in the central Rocky Mountains have been recognized as subsp. australis. However, both of these forms occur among collections from Eurasia that have been referred to subsp. repens. When material from populations of subsp. purpurata was grown farther south, it took on the appearance of subsp. australis, suggesting that the differences are under environmental influence.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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