Saponaria ocymoides 'Rubra Compacta'

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Caryophyllaceae

Herbs annual or perennial , rarely subshrubs or shrubs . Stems and branches usually swollen at nodes. Leaves opposite, decussate, rarely alternate or verticillate , simple , entire, usually connate at base ; stipules scarious , bristly , or often absent. Inflorescence of cymes or cymose panicles, rarely flowers solitary or few in racemes , capitula, pseudoverticillasters, or umbels. Flowers actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual , occasionally cleistogamous . Sepals (4 or) 5, free , imbricate, or connate into a tube , leaflike or scarious, persistent , sometimes bracteate below calyx. Petals (4 or) 5, rarely absent, free, often comprising claw and limb; limb entire or split, usually with coronal scales at juncture of claw and limb. Stamens (2--) 5--10, in 1 or 2 series. Pistil 1; carpels 2--5, united into a compound ovary. Ovary superior, 1-loculed or basally imperfectly 2--5-loculed. Gynophore present or absent. Placentation free, central, rarely basal; ovules (1 or) few or numerous , campylotropous. Styles (1 or) 2--5, sometimes united at base. Fruit usually a capsule, with pericarp crustaceous , scarious, or papery , dehiscing by teeth or valves 1 or 2 × as many as styles, rarely berrylike with irregular dehiscence or an achene. Seeds 1 to numerous, reniform , ovoid , or rarely dorsiventrally compressed , abaxially grooved , blunt , or sharply pointed , rarely fimbriate-pectinate; testa granular , striate or tuberculate , rarely smooth or spongy ; embryo strongly curved and surrounding perisperm or straight but eccentric ; perisperm mealy.

Between 75 and 80 genera and ca. 2000 species: widespread but mainly of temperate or warm-temperate occurrence in the N hemisphere, with principal centers of distribution in the Mediterranean region and W Asia to W China and the Himalayas, fewer species in Africa S of the Sahara, America, and Oceania; 30 genera (two endemic) and 390 species (193 endemic) in China.

Arenaria, Silene, and Stellaria contain over half the species in the family in China. They are mostly concentrated in the Qinghai-Xizang plateau , and are especially rich from the Hengduan Mountains to the Himalayas. The main uses of this family are medicinal and ornamental . Dianthus superbus, Pseudostellaria heterophylla, Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata, and Vaccaria hispanica are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine . Some species of Arenaria, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Psammosilene, and Silene are used as medicinal herbs among the people or are habitually used in local Chinese medicine. Many species of Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Saponaria, and Silene are grown as ornamentals. Atocion armeria (Linnaeus) Rafinesque ( Silene armeria Linnaeus), native to Russia and Europe, is also cultivated in China. It differs from Silene in having a corymbose inflorescence and obscure calyx veins. Wu Cheng-yih, Ke Ping, Zhou Li-hua, Tang Chang-lin & Lu De-quan. 1996. Caryophyllaceae. In: Tang Chang-lin, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 26: 47–449.[1]

Genus Saponaria

Herbs, [annual , biennial, or] perennial . Rhizomes stout or slender. Stems erect to spreading , simple or branched, terete . Leaves connate proximally, petiolate or sessile; blade 3(-5) -veined, spatulate to elliptic or ovate , apex acute or rounded . Inflorescences terminal , dense to open, lax cymes; bracts paired , foliaceous ; involucel bracteoles absent. Pedicels erect. Flowers: sepals connate proximally into tube , greenish, reddish, or purple, 7-25 mm, tube 15-25-veined, oblong-cylindric, terete, commissures between sepals absent; lobes green, reddish, or purple, 3-5-veined, triangular-attenuate, shorter than tube, margins white, scarious , apex acute or acuminate; petals 5 (doubled in some cultivars), pink to white, clawed, auricles absent, with 2 coronal scales , blade apex entire or emarginate ; nectaries at filament bases ; stamens 10, adnate with petals to carpophore; filaments briefly connate proximally; staminodes absent (present in some cultivars) ; ovary 1-locular; styles 2(-3), filiform , 12-15 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 2(-3), linear along adaxial surface of styles, papillate (30×). Capsules cylindric to ovoid , opening by 4(-6) ascending or recurving teeth; carpophore present. Seeds 15-75, dark brown, reniform , laterally compressed , papillose , marginal wing absent, appendage absent; embryo peripheral, curved . x = 7.

Species ca. 40: introduced ; Europe, c, w Asia, Africa (Mediterranean region) ; S. officinalis widely naturalized elsewhere.[2]

Physical Description

Biology

Growth

Culture: Space 9-12" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b. (map)

Taxonomy

Notes

A tentatively accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Saponaria

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 15 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

S. ocymoides (Rock Soapwort) · S. ocymoides 'Alba' (White Flowered Soapwort) · S. ocymoides 'Rosea' (Rock Soapwort) · S. ocymoides 'Rubra Compacta' (Rock Soapwort) · S. ocymoides 'Splendens' (Rock Soapwort) · S. officinalis (Bouncing Bet) · S. officinalis 'Alba Plena' (Bouncing Bet) · S. officinalis 'Flore Pleno' (Bouncing Bet) · S. officinalis 'Rosea Plena' (Bouncing Bet) · S. pumila (Dwarf Soapwort) · S. pumilio (Pygmy Pink) · S. x lempergii (Giant-Flowered Soapwort) · S. x lempergii 'Max Frei' (Giant Flowered Soapwort) · S. x olivana (Dwarf Soapwort) · S. x 'Oliviana' (Soapwort)

More Info

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• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• Shults, V. A. 1989. Rod Myl'nyanka (Saponaria L. s.l.) vo Flore SSSR. Riga.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed October 6, 2006.

Identifiers

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 951923

Footnotes

1. Dequan Lu, Zhengyi Wu, Lihua Zhou, Shilong Chen, Michael G. Gilbert, Magnus Lidén, John McNeill, John K. Morton, Bengt Oxelman, Richard K. Rabeler, Mats Thulin, Nicholas J. Turland & Warren L. Wagner "Caryophyllaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 6 Page 1. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. John W. Thieret, Richard K. Rabeler "Saponaria". in Flora of North America Vol. 5. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.