13. Silene virginica L. (fire pink)

Map 1492, Pl. 346 e, f

Plants perennial, with a branched rootstock. Stems 20–70 cm long, erect, unbranched or branched at the base, moderately to densely pubescent with stalked glands, sometimes glabrous or nearly so toward the base. Basal leaves usually numerous at flowering (vegetative rosettes from offsets frequently also present adjacent to the flowering stems), the largest much longer than the largest stem leaves, short- to more commonly long-petiolate. Stem leaves opposite, in 2–4 widely spaced pairs, sessile. Leaf blades 1–12 cm long, those of the basal leaves narrowly to broadly oblanceolate or spatulate, those of the stem leaves oblanceolate to narrowly oblong-elliptic or lanceolate, tapered at the base, angled or tapered to a usually sharply pointed tip (a few of the smaller basal leaves sometimes rounded or bluntly pointed), the surfaces glabrous or short-hairy and/or with stalked glands. Flowers perfect, in open terminal clusters or panicles, the stalks 0.4–2.0 cm long, often angled downward from the base at fruiting, with stalked glands, the bracts paired and resembling small leaves, with herbaceous, green margins. Sepals 16–21 mm long, the tube with 10 parallel, nonanastomosing nerves, more or less tubular at flowering, becoming somewhat inflated and broadly club-shaped at fruiting, green or purplish-tinged, slightly paler and sometimes slightly translucent (at fruiting) between the nerves, with stalked glands, the lobes lanceolate to triangular, green to purple, bluntly or sharply pointed at the tip, the margins herbaceous and green or thin and white to reddish-tinged. Petals 5, 30–45 mm long, the expanded portion 10–19 mm long, with 2 larger and 2 smaller, slender lobes at the tip (appearing irregularly fringed, bright red, with a pair of small appendages on the upper surface at the base of the expanded portion. Styles 3(4). Capsules 14–17 mm long, dehiscing apically by 6(8) teeth, with a stalklike basal portion 2–3 mm long. Seeds 1.0–1.2 mm wide, kidney-shaped, the surface with large, somewhat bulbous papillae, gray. 2n=48. April–June.

Scattered in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions, uncommon and sporadic in the Unglaciated Plains, Glaciated Plains, and Mississippi Lowlands (eastern U.S. west to Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana). Bottomland forests, mesic upland forests, banks of streams and rivers, and bases and ledges of bluffs; also edges of pastures and shaded roadsides.

For a discussion of hybridization between S. virginica and S. caroliniana, see the treatment of that species.