4. Silene csereii Baumg. (smooth catchfly, glaucous campion)

Map 1483, Pl. 347 e, f

Plants annual or biennial. Stems 40–75 cm long, erect, unbranched or few-branched toward the base, glabrous and glaucous. Basal leaves usually beginning to wither at flowering, when present mostly shorter than the stem leaves, usually with a short, poorly differentiated petiole. Stem leaves opposite, mostly 4–10 pairs, sessile. Leaf blades 3.0–7.5 cm long, somewhat thickened and succulent, broadly oblanceolate to obovate or occasionally lanceolate to ovate, tapered at the base, angled or abruptly short-tapered to a sharply pointed tip, glabrous, usually strongly glaucous. Flowers perfect, in terminal, slender, usually elongated panicles, often forked basally, the stalks (0.7–)1.0–2.5(–3.5) cm long, glabrous, the bracts paired and resembling highly reduced leaves, with thin, white margins. Sepals 7–10 mm long, the tube with 20 indistinct, parallel, rarely anastomosing nerves, somewhat inflated, oblong-ovoid to ellipsoid, constricted at both ends and tightly enclosing the fruit, pale green or faintly purplish-tinged, not lighter between the nerves, glabrous, the lobes triangular, pale green or somewhat purplish-tinged, angled or short-tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins thin and white. Petals 5, 10–15 mm long, the expanded portion 3–5 mm long, 2-lobed at the tip, white, with a pair of small appendages on the upper surface at the base of the expanded portion. Styles 3. Fruits 7–10 mm long, dehiscing apically by 6 teeth, with a basal stalklike portion 0.7–1.0 mm long. Seeds 0.6–1.0 mm wide, kidney-shaped and plump, the surface with minute papillae, grayish brown. 2n=24. May–September.

Introduced, uncommon and sporadic (native of Europe; introduced in the northern U.S. south to North Carolina, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, and Washington; Canada). Dolomite glades; also railroads, roadsides, and open, disturbed areas.

Silene csereii sometimes is mistaken for S. vulgaris. Distinguishing features of S. csereii include the thicker, somewhat succulent leaves, the narrow, often basally forked inflorescences and the smaller flowers with a less inflated calyx that tightly encloses the fruit. The basal rosettes of thick, gray leaves superficially are similar to those of some species of Crassulaceae that are cultivated by succulent plant enthusiasts. The species epithet was spelled S. cserei in the original publication, and that spelling is still used in many recent floristic works. However, S. csereii appears to have the correct termination when the name of Johann Baumgartens patron, Wolfgang von Cserei, is commemorated in a botanical name.