Silene acaulis
Silene seelyi
moss campion, silène acaule
Seely's catchfly, Seely's catchfly or silene, Seely's silene
numerous, decumbent to ascending, branched, tufted, leafy, slender, 5–30 cm.
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 or nearly so, blade reticulate-veined, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, thin, 0.8–2 cm × 3–8 mm, broadest proximally, base rounded, apex acute.
solitary flowers.
cymose, open, compound, leafy, single flowers borne terminally and in axils of distal leaves;
bracteoles, when present, 2.
2–40 mm.
straight, slender, 1/2–3 times longer than 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.
calyx green, obscurely 10-veined, narrowly campanulate, in fruit 6–9 × 3–4 mm, herbaceous, pubescent, veins without conspicuous pale commissures;
lobes triangular, 2–3 mm;
corolla dark red, sometimes white, clawed, claw slightly longer than calyx, limb deeply 2-lobed, 2–3 mm, appendages 2, very small;
stamens exserted;
styles 3, exserted.
3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth;
carpophore ca. 1 mm.
ellipsoid, included in calyx, opening by 6 teeth;
carpophore ca. 1.5 mm.
light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose.
brown, not winged, broadly reniform, flattened, ca. 0.8 mm, reticulate.
= 24.
= 24.
Silene acaulis
Silene seelyi
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.
Silene seelyi is confined to the Wenatchee Mountains. It closely related to S. menziesii, but is distinguished by its usually dark red flowers and broadly lanceolate leaves.
Silene seelyi 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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