Flora-Fauna

Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke

First published in Fl. N. Mitt.-Deutschland, ed. 9: 64 (1869).

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, pp. 500–501, Pl. CLXXII, 1; 1966)

Description

Life-form & habit: Usually hairless, slightly bluish perennial with ascending stems, 30–60 cm tall.

Leaves: Elliptic to lanceolate, pointed and narrowed at the base.

Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers in branching, roughly flat-topped clusters. The conspicuously inflated, oval calyx has triangular teeth and twenty faint longitudinal veins linked by a network of cross-veins. White petals are deeply divided into two lobes, with only small swellings in place of a crown.

Fruit: Oval-rounded capsule, shorter than the calyx and about five times as long as its very short supporting stalk.

Flowering and habitat

Phenology: Flowering February–June.

Habitat & elevation: Fields and pastures.

Distribution

Lebanese distribution: Saida, Beirut, Nahr el Kalb, Tripoli, Jounieh, Bikfaya, Abey, below Beit Meri, Asfouriye, Dahr el Baidar, Berkacha, the Cedars, Hasroun, Dimane, Sarada, Jisr el Khardali, Sannine and Kfertay.

Syrian distribution: Damascus, Qalaat Jendel and Homs.

Native range: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Altay, Amur, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Buryatiya, Canary Is., Central European Russia, Chita, Corse, Cyprus, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Ireland, Irkutsk, Italy, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Krym, Kuril Is., Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Primorye, Romania, Sakhalin, Sardegna, Saudi Arabia, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Tuva, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya.

Introduced into: Alaska, Alberta, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Cape Provinces, Chile Central, Chile South, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Eritrea, Georgia, Greenland, Haiti, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Japan, Kansas, Kentucky, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tasmania, Tennessee, Venezuela, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon.

⚠️ Taxonomic note:

Mouterde treats this species as Silene cucubalus Wibel, a synonym of Silene vulgaris in Kew. His separately discussed subsp. commutata is excluded from this local description.