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Silene caesia samothracica

Description

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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.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.

Genus Silene

Herbs, annual , biennial, or perennial , often decumbent at base or sometimes cespitose. Taproots slender or often stout, deep, branched caudex often present, some species stoloniferous or rhizomatous . Stems simple or branched, terete or sometimes angular. Leaves opposite or occasionally whorled , connate proximally, petiolate (basal leaves ) or sessile (most cauline leaves) ; blade 1-5-veined, linear to obovate or spatulate , herbaceous, apex acute to obtuse . Inflorescences terminal or sometimes axillary , simple or branched, sometimes condensed cymes, frequently flowers few or solitary, frequently glandular-pubescent and viscid ; bracts paired , herbaceous or scarious , or absent; involucel bracteoles absent. Pedicels erect , rarely flowers sessile or subsessile . Flowers bisexual , sometimes unisexual (rarely so on separate plants ) ; sepals connate proximally into tube , (4-) 10-28(-40) mm; tube green, whitish, and/or purplish, 10-30-veined, cylindric to campanulate , urceolate , or clavate , terete, frequently inflated , membranous or more rarely herbaceous, commissures between sepals 1-veined, herbaceous; lobes green or purplish, 1-5-veined, broadly triangular to lance-oblong or linear, usually shorter than tube, margins whitish, scarious, apex acute to obtuse; petals 5, white, pink, scarlet, dusky purple, or off-white tinged with purple, clawed, claw usually conspicuous , sometimes small, rarely absent, auricles 2, coronal appendages 2, variously shaped or dissected ; limb usually exserted and conspicuous, oblanceolate to obovate, apex 2-lobed, sometimes dissected into 1-4 linear lobes or irregular teeth, or fimbriate, rarely entire ; nectaries at filament bases; stamens 10, rarely fewer or absent, frequently dimorphic with longer opposite petals, arising with petals from carpophore; filaments distinct nearly to base; staminodes absent (rarely to 10 in pistillate flowers, arising with petals from carpophore, filiform ) ; ovary 1- or 3-5-locular; styles 3 or 5, occasionally 4 (absent in staminate flowers ), filiform, 1.5-20 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 3 or 5, occasionally 4, linear along adaxial surface of styles, papillate (30×) . Capsules ovoid to globose , opening along sutures into 3-5 valves , frequently splitting into 6-10 equal teeth; carpophore usually present. Seeds ca. (5-) 15-100(-500+), reddish to gray or black, reniform to globose, usually tuberculate or papillate, papillae around margins sometimes larger and inflated, marginal wing sometimes present, appendage absent; embryo peripheral, curved . x = (10) 12.

Species ca. 700: mainly Northern Hemisphere.

Silene includes several important weeds and some very beautiful horticultural plants. In addition to the species described in this account, several others have occurred in the flora area as chance introductions or garden escapes , but they have not become established and most have not been seen recently. They include S. coeli-rosa (Linnaeus) Godron, S. cretica Linnaeus, S. (Lychnis) fulgens (Fischer) E. H. L. Krause, S. italica Persoon, and S. nutans Linnaeus.

In this account, Lychnis, Melandrium, and Viscaria have been included in Silene, their previous recognition as distinct genera having resulted in a great deal of confusion in both nomenclature and taxonomy. I have not presented an infrageneric classification of Silene because existing systems either do not include those other genera (e.g. , P. K . Chowdhuri 1957) or do not deal with most of our native North American taxa [e.g., W. Greuter (1995) and the molecular studies by Oxelman and coworkers (e.g., B . Oxelman et al. 1997, 2000]. The recent molecular study by J. G. Burleigh and T. P. Holtsford (2003) provides little support for existing morphologically based sectional classifications within Silene insofar as they relate to endemic North American taxa. However, it does indicate the distinctness of our arctic alpine species (S. involucrata€”as S. furcata, and S. acaulis) that are circumpolar in their distribution.John K. Morton "Silene". in Flora of North America Vol. 5. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Silene

There are approximately 2373 species in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

S. 'Bill MacKenzie' · S. 'Ice Clips' · S. 'Pink Bells' · S. 'Rocking Robin' (Catchfly) · S. 'Rolley's Favourite' · S. 'Wisley Pink' · S. abietum · S. acantholimon · S. acarpophora · S. acaulis (Cushion-Pink) · S. acaulis 'Alba' · S. acaulis 'Blush' · S. acaulis 'Correvoniana' · S. acaulis 'Frances' · S. acaulis 'Francis Copeland' · S. acaulis 'Helen's Double' · S. acaulis 'Mount Snowdon' · S. acaulis 'Pedunculata' · S. acaulis 'Plena' · S. acaulis 'Saxatilis' · S. acaulis 'White Rabbit' · S. acaulis acaulis var. acaulis · S. acaulis artica · S. acaulis bryoides · S. acaulis excapa · S. acaulis f. albiflora · S. acaulis f. athabascensis · S. acaulis f. subacaulescens · S. acaulis longiscapa · S. acaulis subacaulescens · S. acaulis subaculescens · S. acaulis subsp. typica · S. acaulis subsp. vanensis · S. acaulis typica · S. acaulis vanensis · S. acaulis var. acaulis · S. acaulis var. exscapa · S. acaulis var. subacaulescens · S. acaulis variegata · S. acuta · S. acutidentata · S. acutiflora · S. acutifolia · S. adelphiae · S. adenantha · S. adenocalyx · S. adenopetala · S. adenophora · S. adhaerens · S. adscendens · S. adusta · S. aegaea · S. aegyptiaca · S. aegyptica · S. aelleni · S. aellenii · S. aeoniopsis · S. aethiopica · S. aetolica · S. aff. nigrescens · S. affinis · S. agrestina · S. agricola · S. agrigentina · S. agrostemma · S. ajanensis · S. ajanensis subsp. villosula · S. ajanensis villosula · S. akaisialpina · S. akaisialpina f. leucantha · S. akinfijewi · S. akmaniana · S. alaschanica · S. alba mariziana · S. alba subsp. mariziana · S. alba var. crassifolia · S. alba var. rothmaleriana · S. albescens · S. aleppica · S. alexandri (Kamalo Gulch Catchfly) · S. alexandrina · S. alexeji · S. allamanni · S. allophila · S. almolae · S. alpestris (Silene) · S. alpestris 'Flore Pleno' · S. alpicola · S. alpina · S. alsinoides · S. altaica · S. amana · S. amassiensis · S. ambigua · S. amblevana · S. ammophila · S. amoena · S. amoena igoschinae · S. amoena subsp. igoschinae · S. amphorina

Bibliography

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More Info

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Notes

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Identifiers

Footnotes

Last Revised: 2008-09-10