Silene flos-cuculi subsp. flos-cuculi

Plants perennial; taproot slender; with branched caudex. Stems erect, nonflowering shoots decumbent, branched, 30–90 cm, with coarse deflexed hairs distally, subglabrous proximally. Leaves: blade glabrous except sometimes ciliate at base; those of proximal stem with blade oblanceolate, spatulate, 2–15 cm × 4–30 mm; those of mid and distal stem subsessile to sessile, connate at base, blade oblanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 3–8 cm × 4–15 mm. Inflorescences cymose, open, bracteate; cyme branched, long-stalked, 3–30-flowered, compound; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 2–25 mm, apex acuminate. Pedicels 0.3–2 cm. Flowers 30–35 mm diam.; calyx prominently 10-veined, campanulate, 6–10 × 4–7 mm in fruit, submembranous, margins dentate with 5 ovate lobes ca. 3 mm, apex acuminate; petals rose pink (rarely white), clawed, claw equaling calyx, limb deeply divided into 4 spreading, linear lobes, ca. 1 cm, appendages 2, deeply forked, narrow, ca. 4 mm; stamens shortly exserted; stigmas 5, shortly exserted. Capsule broadly ovoid, equaling calyx, opening by 5 acute, revolute teeth; carpophore very short (less than 0.5 mm) or absent. Seeds dark brown to black, 0.5–0.7 mm, coarsely tuberculate; tubercules triangular, ca. as long as broad. 2n = 24.

Phenology: Flowering summer.
Habitat: Wet meadows, roadside ditches, river banks, lake shores
Elevation: 0-800 m

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que., Conn., Maine, Md., Mass., Mont., N.H., N.J., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Vt., Wash., Europe.

Discussion

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.