Silène Enflèe

Silene vulgaris is less variable in North America than in its native Europe, where five subspecies are recognized on the basis of capsule size, petal color, leaf shape, and habit. All North American material appears to belong to subsp. vulgaris, although a few collections from sandy habitats tend to have unusually narrow leaves. Similar plants from Europe have been named var. litoralis (Ruprecht) Jalas and subsp. angustifolia Hayek.

Plants short-lived perennial, gla-brous, rarely pubescent, glaucous; taproot stout; caudex woody. Stems several-many, erect, branched and decumbent at base, rarely simple, 20-80 cm. Leaves mainly cauline, 2 per node, sessile, almost clasping, reduced proximal to inflorescence, blade broadly oblong to oblanceolate or lanceolate, rarely ± linear, 2-8 cm × 5-30 mm, base round, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences open dichasial cyme, 5-40-flowered, bracteate; bracts much-reduced, lanceolate. Pedicels 0.5-3 cm. Flowers bisexual and unisexual, some plants having bisexual flowers, others having pistillate unisexual flowers, 15-20 mm diam.; calyx pale green, rarely purplish, campanulate, not contracted at mouth or base, inflated, 9-12 mm in flower, 12-18 × 7-11 mm in fruit, herbaceous, papery, venation obscure, reticulate, without conspicuous pale commissures, margins dentate, lobes broadly triangular, 2-3 mm, glabrous; petals white, ca. 2 times as long as calyx; limb obovate, emarginate to 2-lobed; stamens exserted by 2-4 mm; styles 3, cream to greenish, at most slightly pink tinged, 2 times longer than calyx. Capsules ovoid to globose, equaling calyx, opening by 6 teeth; carpophore 2-3 mm. Seeds black or nearly so, globose-reniform, 1-1.5 mm, finely tuberculate. 2n = 24.

Herbs perennial, grayish green, 40--100 cm tall, glabrous throughout. Roots slightly robust, lignified. Stems sparsely caespitose, erect, usually gray, apically branched. Leaves lanceolate to ovate, 4--10 × 1--3(--4.5) cm, proximal cauline leaves with prominent midvein, base attenuate, apex acuminate or acute; distal leaves cuneate, slightly clasping. Flowers usually in many-flowered dichasia, sometimes in thyrsoid inflorescences; flowers sometimes spreading or slightly nutant. Pedicel shorter than or subequaling calyx; bracts ovate-lanceolate, herbaceous. Calyx usually violet-tinged, broadly ovoid, inflated, 1.3--1.6 cm × 5--7 mm, submembranous, with 20 anastomosing veins; calyx teeth broadly triangular, short, ciliate. Androgynophore ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Petals 1.5--1.8 cm; claws cuneate-oblanceolate, glabrous, auricles ovoid; limbs exserted beyond calyx, white, obovate, deeply bifid to base of limb, lobes narrowly obovate; coronal scales small. Stamens and styles prominently exserted; filaments glabrous; anthers violet. Styles 3. Capsule subglobose, ca. 8 mm in diam., shorter than calyx. Seeds globose-reniform, ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. Jun--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep. 2n = 24, 48.

Europe, N. Africa, Asia eastwards to W. Himalaya.

introduced; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Europe.

Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, Xinjiang, Xizang [India, Mongolia, Nepal; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe].

2000-3000 m

Flowering summer-fall.

Roadsides, waste ground, gravel pits and shores, arable land; 0-2000m.

Meadows, scrub; 200--2700 m.

Behen vulgaris Moench, Methodus, 709. 1794; Silene cucubalus Wibel; S. inflata Smith; S. latifolia (Miller) Britten & Rendle var. pubescens (de Candolle) Farwell

Behen vulgaris Moench, Meth. Pl. 709. 1794; Cucubalus behen Linnaeus (1753), not Silene behen Linnaeus (1753); C. latifolius Miller; C. venosus Gilibert; S. cucubalus Wibel; S. inflata Smith; S. inflata var. vulgaris Turczaninow; S. venosa (Gilibert) Ascherson; ?S. wallichiana Klotzsch.