Silene acaulis
Silene wrightii
moss campion, silène acaule
Wright's catchfly
several, simple or branched, spreading to ascending, leafy, 10–30 cm, densely pubescent, glandular.
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, mostly cauline, blade 1.5–6 cm × 3–14 mm, apex sharply acuminate, pubescent and viscid on both surfaces;
distal sessile, blade elliptic-lanceolate;
proximal short-petiolate, blade oblanceolate.
solitary flowers.
leafy, flowers terminal and axillary.
2–40 mm.
straight, rather slender, 1/5 times to equaling 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 prominently 10-veined, tubular to narrowly obconic in flower, 16–20 × 4–5 mm, clavate and broadening to 7 mm in fruit, narrowed proximally around carpophore, coarsely glandular-pubescent and viscid, veins parallel, green, with pale commissures, lobes narrowly lanceolate, 5–7 mm, margins narrow, membranous, apex acuminate;
corolla white to pale yellow, sometimes purple tinged, clawed, ca. 2 times calyx, claw longer than calyx, broadened into obtriangular limb, limb 5–8 mm, cleft ca. to middle into (2–)4–8 lanceolate to oblong lobes, appendages 2, very short;
stamens exserted, shorter than petals;
styles 3, exserted, slender, shorter than petals.
3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth;
carpophore ca. 1 mm.
narrowly ovoid, equaling calyx, opening by 3 teeth that tardily split into 6;
carpophore 3–6 mm.
light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose.
brown, broadly reniform, flattened, ca. 1.5 mm, sides rugose, margins papillate;
papillae conic, acute.
= 24.
= 96.
Silene acaulis
Silene wrightii
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 wrightii is an uncommon, distinct species with large, pale yellowish flowers and tubular to narrowly funnelform calyces with long, narrow, lanceolate lobes. The leaves are mainly cauline, with the largest in the mid-stem region. The stems are few-branched and arise in tufts from the very woody caudex.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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