9. Silene nivea (Nutt.) Muhl. ex Otth (snowy campion)

Map 1488, Pl. 346 c, d

Plants perennial, with rhizomes. Stems 20–90 cm long, erect or ascending, unbranched or occasionally few-branched, glabrous or less commonly moderately pubescent with short, downward-curved hairs toward the base. Basal leaves usually absent at flowering, when present shorter than the largest stem leaves, short-petiolate. Stem leaves opposite, usually 6–10 pairs, short-petiolate (lower leaves) or sessile. Leaf blades 3–11 cm long, elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate, rounded, angled, or tapered at the base, angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the surfaces glabrous or occasionally short-hairy along the midvein toward the base. Flowers perfect, in open terminal clusters or solitary, occasionally appearing solitary and axillary from the upper leaves, the stalks 1.2–3.0 cm long, glabrous to short-hairy, sometimes becoming hooked toward the tip at fruiting, the bracts paired and resembling small or more commonly nearly full-sized leaves, with herbaceous, green margins. Sepals 14–17 mm long, the tube with 10 faint, parallel nerves, tubular, becoming somewhat inflated and broadly urn-shaped at fruiting, narrowed toward the base, green, not pale between the nerves, glabrous or occasionally sparsely to densely short-hairy, the lobes triangular, green, bluntly pointed at the tip, the margins thin and white. Petals 5, 19–24 mm long, the expanded portion 5–7 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 8–10 mm long, dehiscing apically by 3 valves that sometimes are split into 6 teeth, with a basal stalklike portion 3–4 mm long. Seeds 0.7–1.0 mm wide, kidney-shaped, the surface finely tuberculate, dark brown to black. 2n=48. June–August.

Uncommon, sporadic in the eastern half of the state (northeastern U.S. west to Minnesota and Missouri). Banks of streams and rivers, bottomland forests, sloughs; also railroads, roadsides, and disturbed areas.