SILENE MUSCIPULA

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Ebraxis muscipula.

Meaning:- Silene (Gr) A name used by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus for

catchfly.

Muscipula (L) Fly-catching.

General description:- Erect annual.

Stems:-

1) 20-60 cm tall, glabrous or minutely papillose-scabrid below, with viscid sections

above.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, elliptical to broadly lanceolate.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, dichasial, with branches overtopping alar flowers.

2) Pedicels, 1-7 mm, straight.

3) Calyx, 12-16 mm, clavate, 10-veined.

4) Petal limb, 3-5 mm, cuneate-obcordate, shallowly bilobed, magenta-pink.

5) Anthophore, 3-4 mm, densely retrorse-pubescent.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule 8-1 1 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, ± equalling the calyx.

2) Seeds c. 1 mm, orbicular-reniform, with flat sides and shallowly furrowed back.

Key features:-

1) Flowers in repeatedly branched, regular dichasia.

2) Pedicels much shorter than the calyx.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cereal fields, occasionally on roadsides and field margins, 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- One record from Nalplio, just W of the Aegean area; a rare and

vanishing archaeophyte. - widespread but scattered in the Mediterranean region,

from Spain to Palestine. Previously unrecorded from Crete. Discovered on Katharo

east Crete in June 2023 by Christopher Cheiladakis.

Flowering time:- Late Apr to early June.

Photo by:- Christopher Cheiladakis