Silene ostenfeldii (A. E. Porsild) J. K. Morton

Silene ostenfeldii, an amphi-Beringian species, is very similar to S. involucrata subsp. tenella. However, it lacks the wing on the seeds, and its mature calyx tends to be more elliptic than campanulate. It may be confused also with S. sorensenis, but that species has larger seeds and calyces and is a sturdier plant with a denser, longer, somewhat woolly pubescence.

Plants perennial, densely cespitose; taproot stout, fleshy; caudex tightly branched. Stems 1-many, erect, simple, slender, 10-30 cm, glandular-pubescent. Leaves connate basally, blade ciliate at base, pubescent on both surfaces; basal numerous, ± petiolate, blade linear-oblanceolate, 1-5 cm × 1-5 mm, somewhat fleshy, apex ± acute; cauline in 1-3 pairs, sessile, blade linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-4 cm × 1-3 mm, apex ± acute. Inflorescences cymose, terminal, (1-)3-flowered, rarely with 1-2 flowers at proximal nodes, bracteate, bracteolate; bracts and bracteoles leaflike, 2-10 mm. Pedicels usually shorter than calyx, rarely much longer, densely pubescent with purple-septate glandular hairs but not viscid. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, elliptic to campanulate, not inflated, not or slightly contracted at mouth, 8-9 × 3-5 mm in flower, 10-12 × 5-6 mm in fruit, to 2 times as long as broad, papery, veins green or purple, densely pubescent, with purple-septate hairs, lobes spreading, lanceolate-triangular, ca. 2 mm, margins purple tinged, round, broad, membranous; corolla white to pink, clawed, ca. 1 4 times longer than calyx, claw equaling calyx, limb not differentiated from claw, obovate, emarginate to 2-lobed, shorter than calyx, appendages 2, ca. 1 mm; stamens equaling petals; styles 5, equaling petals. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, slightly longer than calyx, opening by 5 recurved teeth; carpophore shorter than 1 mm. Seeds brown, not winged, reniform, angular, less than 1 mm broad, finely papillate. 2n = 24, 48, 72.

B.C., N.W.T., Nunavut, Yukon; Alaska; e Asia (Russian Far East).

Flowering early summer.

Gravelly tundra, rocky ledges, talus, river outwash, grassy areas; 0-1800m.

Melandrium ostenfeldii A. E. Porsild, Sargentia 4: 37. 1943; Gastrolychnis ostenfeldii (A. E. Porsild) V. V. Petrovsky; G. taimyrensis (Tolmatchew) Czerepanov; G. triflora (R. Brown ex Sommerfelt) Tolmatchew & Kozhanchikov subsp. dawsonii (B. L. Robinson) Á. Löve & D. Löve; Lychnis dawsonii (B. L. Robinson) J. P. Anderson; L. ostenfeldii (A. E. Porsild) B. Boivin; L. taimyrense (Tolmatchew) Polunin; L. triflora R. Brown ex Sommerfelt subsp. dawsonii (B. L. Robinson) Maguire; L. triflora var. dawsonii B. L. Robinson; Melandrium dawsonii (B. L. Robinson) Hultén

Silene taimyrensis, or Taimyr catchfly, is a herbaceous perennial in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to the Yukon and British Columbia in Canada and to Alaska. It is found to an elevation of a 1500 meters, growing in exposed subalpine to alpine locations with poor, rocky to sandy soils. It grows to a height of 40 cm in its native habitat and to twice that height as a garden plant; it has small, white to light pink flowers that grow in terminal clusters. S. taimyrensis is known in the fossil record from the Late Pleistocene.