7. Silene gallica L. (small-flowered catchfly)

S. anglica L.

Map 1486, Pl. 347 c, d

Plants annual. Stems 10–45 cm long, erect, unbranched or branched, roughened with dense, short, stiff, downward-angled hairs, also with sparse to moderate longer, softer, more or less crinkled hairs, often also with stalked glands toward the tip. Basal leaves usually withered at flowering, when present shorter than the largest stem leaves, short- to long-petiolate. Stem leaves opposite, usually 6–10 pairs, short-petiolate (lower leaves) or sessile. Leaf blades 0.5–5.0 cm long, spatulate or oblanceolate to lanceolate, tapered at the base, angled or abruptly short-tapered to a sharply pointed tip. Flowers perfect, in open terminal panicles, often appearing as leafy branches with solitary axillary flowers, the stalks 0.1–0.5 cm long, with stalked glands, the bracts paired and resembling small leaves, with green margins. Sepals 8–10 mm long, the tube with 10 parallel nonanastomosing nerves, tubular to ovoid, constricted toward the tip, the nerves green or purplish-tinged, pale or yellowish white between the nerves, pubescent with sparse long, nonglandular hairs and moderate short, stalked glands, the lobes narrowly lanceolate, green or purple, sharply pointed at the tip, the margins green. Petals 5, 11–14 mm long, the expanded portion 3–5 mm long, entire or notched at the tip, white, with a pair of small appendages on the upper surface at the base of the expanded portion. Styles 3. Fruits 6–8 mm long, dehiscing apically by 6 teeth, with a stalklike base 0.8–1.0 mm long. Seeds 0.5–0.8 mm wide, kidney-shaped with concave sides, the surface with a fan-shaped pattern of many fine ridges and low tubercles, dark reddish brown to black. 2n=24. April–September.

Introduced, uncommon, known thus far only from Jackson County and the city of St. Louis (native of Europe, Asia; introduced in the eastern U.S. west to Missouri and Texas and in the western U.S. from Washington and Idaho south to California and Arizona; Canada). Railroads and open, disturbed areas.

Steyermark (1963) reported a specimen of this species from Cape Girardeau County, but this was redetermined as S. dichotoma in 1998 by John K. Morton of the University of Waterloo, Canada, during his research for the Flora of North America Project (Morton, 2005c).