SILENE NOCTURNA

Family and Genus:- See- CARYOPHYLLACEAE/Sect. SCORPIOIDEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Silene brachypetala, Corone nocturna

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

catchfly.

Nocturna (L) At night.

General description:- Herbaceous annual plant. often branched from the base.

Stems:-

1) 15-45 cm, erect, usually branched, shortly eglandular-pubescent below,

sometimes glandular above.

Leaves:-

1) Lower cauline, oblanceolate, obtuse, the upper narrower.

Flowers:-

1) 5-15 in raceme-like cymes with a terminal flower monochasial, very densely

crowded above, remote below.

2) Inflorescence, usually compound, sometimes alar flowers.

3) Calyx, (6-)9-13 mm, fusiform at anthesis oblong-obovoid in fruit, eglandular-

pubescent with ascending hairs; veins wide, green, anastomosing.

4) Petal-limb, usually pink, bifid, exserted.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 8-11 mm, oblong or ovoid-oblong; carpophore 1-1·5 mm, puberulent.

2) Seeds, reniform; faces excavate-auriculate; back wide, with a shallow,

tuberculate groove.

Key features:-

1) Stems, more than 3-flowered.

2) Seeds, excavate on the face.

3) Plant, never villous.

4) Carpophore, less than 2 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Weed of fallow fields and olive groves, also on roadsides and stony hills

with dry open shrubby vegetation and in coastal habitats. 0-700 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but lacking in the interior C & N mainland. -

Mediterranean region. Fairly widespread across Crete

Flowering time:- Apr-June.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis