Oregon Silene

The creamy white laciniate petals are the best field (and herbarium) guide to distinguishing this species from Silene parryi and S. scouleri, both of which have 2-4-lobed petals that are usually dingy cream to greenish or purple tinged.

Plants perennial; taproot stout; caudex simple or sparsely branched, woody. Stems usually simple proximal to inflorescence, 30-50(-70) cm, puberulent and shortly stipitate-glandular, espec-ially distally. Leaves 2 per node, gradually reduced distally; basal petiolate, blade oblanceolate, spatulate, 5-9 cm × 7-15 mm (including petiole), apex acute to obtuse, usually glabrous adaxially, sparsely pubescent abaxially; cauline in 4-6 pairs, blade linear-lanceolate, 1-6(-8) cm × 2-6 mm, puberulent and shortly stipitate-glandular. Inflorescences thyrsate, 3-25-flowered, open, bracteate, pedunculate, stipitate-glandular, viscid; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 2-25 mm, apex acuminate. Pedicels ascending. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, narrowly campanulate, umbilicate, somewhat clavate and constricted below middle around carpophore, 9-15 × 3-4 mm in flower, broadening to 7 mm in fruit, membranous, shortly stipitate-glandular, veins parallel, slender, tinged dark red, with pale commissures, lobes ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, 2-3 mm, margins scarious; corolla creamy white, sometimes pink tinged, clawed, claw equaling calyx, glabrous, broadening only slightly into limb 3-8 mm, limb with 4-6 linear lobes, some splitting to 10 linear segments, appendages 4-6, linear, 1-1.5 mm, apex acute; stamens ca. equaling petals; filaments glabrous; stigmas 3(-5), ca. equaling petals. Capsules ellipsoid, slightly longer than calyx, opening by 6 (or 8 or 10) very brittle teeth; carpophore 2-4 mm. Seeds brown, ± reniform, angular, glossy, shallowly tuberculate. 2n = 48.

Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Flowering summer.

Dry, grassy slopes, rocky areas, open woodlands and forests; 1500-2800m.

Silene filisecta M. Peck; S. gormanii Howell; S. oregana var. filisecta (M. Peck) M. Peck

Silene oregana is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Oregon silene, Oregon campion and Oregon catchfly. It is native to the western United States, including the Great Basin, where it grows in habitat such as sagebrush and forests. It is a perennial herb growing from a woody caudex and taproot, sending up an erect, mostly unbranched stem which may be 70 centimeters tall. The lance-shaped leaves are up to 8 centimeters long around the caudex, and shorter farther up the stem. Flowers occur in a terminal cyme and sometimes in leaf axils. Each flower is encapsulated in a hairy, glandular calyx of fused sepals. The five petals are creamy white or pink-tinged in color and each has four to six long, fringelike lobes at the tip.