Silene acaulis ssp subacaulescens

 

Silene acaulis (L.) Jacq. ssp. subacaulescens (F.N. Williams) Hultén, commonly known as moss campion, is a flowering plant that belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family. This plant species is native to the Arctic and alpine regions of Eurasia and North America. It primarily grows in sandy, rocky, or gravelly soils, usually in mountainous or subalpine meadows.

COMMON NAMES

Silene acaulis (L.) Jacq. ssp. subacaulescens (F.N. Williams) Hultén is commonly known as moss campion, cushion pink, or mountain sandwort.

USES

Moss campion has been traditionally used in herbal medicine for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. It is also used as a natural dye, producing a pinkish-red color from its flowers. The plant is an essential component of the alpine ecosystem, providing ground cover and food for various herbivores, such as caribou, muskoxen, and reindeer.

GENERAL APPEARANCE

Moss campion is a low-growing, perennial plant that forms distinctive compact cushions, ranging from a few centimeters to over a meter in diameter. The plant's stem is short and unbranched, with densely clustered leaves that are narrow and pointed, arranged in rosettes. The plant's flowers are small, pink, and bloom from late spring to early summer. The fruits are small capsules that split open to release numerous tiny seeds.

Silene Acaulis (l.) Jacq. Ssp. Subacaulescens (f.n. Williams) Hultén - >>silene Acaulis Var. Subacaulescens | Plants, Gardening, Landscaping | Botanikks

Silene acaulis (Linnaeus) Jacquin, Enum. Stirp. Vindob. 78, 242. 1762.

Moss campion, silène acaule

Cucubalus acaulis Linnaeus Sp. Pl. 1: 415. 1753; Silene acaulis subsp. arctica Á. Löve & D. Löve; S. acaulis var. exscapa (Allioni) de Candolle; S. acaulis subsp. subacaulescens (F. M. Williams) Hultén; S. exscapa Allioni; Xamilensis acaulis (Linnaeus) Tzvelev

Plants perennial, mat- or cushion-forming, subglabrous; taproot stout; caudex much-branched, becoming woody. Flowering stems erect, leafy proximally, 3-6(-15) cm, old leaves persistent at base. Leaves mostly basal, densely crowded and imbricate, sessile; blade 1(-3)-veined, linear-subulate to lanceolate, 0.4-1(-1.5) cm × 0.8-1.5(-2) mm, margins cartilaginous, often ciliolate especially proximally, apex acute, glabrous to scabrous. Inflorescences solitary flowers. Pedicels 2-40 mm. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, all plants having both staminate and pistillate flowers, others having only pistillate flowers, subsessile or borne singly on peduncle; calyx 10-veined, lateral veins absent, tubular to campanulate, (5-)7-10 mm, herbaceous, margins often purple tinged, dentate, sometimes ciliate, ± scarious, glabrous, lobes lanceolate to ovate, 1-2 mm; petals bright pink, rarely white, limb unlobed to shallowly 2-fid, 2.5-3.5 mm, base tapered into claw, auricles and appendages poorly developed; stamens exserted in staminate flowers, not so or aborted in pistillate flowers; styles 3. Capsules 3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth; carpophore ca. 1 mm. Seeds light brown, reniform, 0.8-1(-1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose. 2n = 24.

Flowering early summer. Arctic and alpine tundra, gravelly, often wet places, rocky ledges; 0-4200 m; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mont., Nev., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Europe; Asia (Russian Far East).

Silene acaulis is a variable species, and most workers have recognized infraspecific taxa in North America: subsp. acaulis (subsp. exscapa and subsp. arctica), which is predominantly arctic; and subsp. subacaulescens, which extends down the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico. In subsp. acaulis, the leaves are flat and short and the flowers are subsessile and smaller in size. Subspecies subacaulescens is typically a larger, less-compact plant with longer, narrower leaves and larger, pedunculate flowers. However, in many populations, these two variants are poorly differentiated, and in others both occur together, connected by intermediates.

Silene acaulis is widely distributed in arctic and alpine Europe.

Silene acaulis in Flora of North America @ efloras.org

 

Southwest Colorado Wildflowers, Silene acaulis (swcoloradowildflowers.com)

Pink & Red Wildflowers - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)