Silene acaulis
Silene suecica
moss campion, silène acaule
alpine pink, catchfly, lychnide alpine
erect, simple, 5–35 cm, glabrous or very sparsely short-pubescent.
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.
basal crowded, blade narrowly oblanceolate, 1–5 cm × 1–5 mm, tapered into broad ciliate base, apex acute;
cauline in 2–5 pairs, sessile, connate proximally, blade narrowly lanceolate, 1–4 cm × 2–7 mm, margins ciliate, apex acute.
solitary flowers.
cymose, congested, 6–30-flowered, bracteate, pedunculate, often with smaller pedunculate branches in distal nodes;
bracts purple, lanceolate, 2–20 mm;
peduncle glabrous to sparsely puberulent.
2–40 mm.
glabrous to sparsely puberulent.
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.
sessile or short-petiolate, 5–10 mm diam.;
calyx purple, faintly 10-veined, campanulate, 4–6 × 3–5 mm, base attenuate into pedicel, lobes ovate, 1–1.5 mm, margins broad, membranous, apex obtuse;
corolla bright pink (rarely white), limb spreading, 2-lobed to middle, 3.5–7 mm, cuneate into claw, ca. 11/4–11/2 times calyx, appendages absent;
stamens ca. equaling petals;
stigmas 5, ca. equaling petals.
3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth;
carpophore ca. 1 mm.
ovoid, equaling to slightly longer than calyx, opening by 5 recurved teeth;
carpophore ca. 1 mm.
light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose.
dark brown, reniform, 0.5–0.8 mm, verrucate with crescent-shaped pattern.
= 24.
= 24.
Silene acaulis
Silene suecica
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.)
North American material of this arctic-alpine species has been regarded as distinct at the varietal and subspecific levels (M. L. Fernald 1940b; T. W. Böcher 1963) because it tends to be larger. However, the distinction is arbitrary, and some European material is as large as that from North America. A recent electrophoretic study (K. B. Haraldsen and J. Wesenberg 1993) of allozymes in populations from both continents provides no support for subdivision of this species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
OR
WA
CalFlora
Flora NW
Go Botany
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
