Flora of New Zealand Series

white campion

Biennial or short-lived perennial, with stout taproot. Stems unbranched or branched below, with soft eglandular hairs, becoming also glandular above, (15)-30-60-(130) cm tall. Lvs with soft eglandular hairs, green, lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, petiolate, becoming sessile above; lamina (2)-4-8-(15) × (0.5)-1-2-(4) cm. Infl. a (3)-7-10-(20)-flowered dichasium, sometimes unequally branched; pedicels 1-5 cm long; bracts lanceolate, acute, green. Fls unisexual. Calyx with short to long glandular and eglandular hairs: calyx in ♂ 10-veined, cylindric, 12-18 mm long; calyx in ♀ 20-veined, ovoid, 17-25 mm long; teeth linear-acuminate, erect or recurved. Petals white; limb 2-fid, rarely 4-lobed; claw lobed at base of limb; coronal scales oblong, 2-fid, 2 mm long in ♂, 0.5 mm long in ♀. Styles 5, erect or recurved at apex, 12-20 mm long. Capsule ovoid, included or c. = calyx, 14-20 mm long; teeth 10, erect or spreading; carpophore very short. Seeds dull dark grey, triangular or reniform, flattened, warty, 1.2-1.4 mm long.

N.: about Wellington; S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Westland, Otago, Southland; Ch.

Europe, N.W. Africa, S.W. Asia 1896

Waste land, roadsides, riverbeds, arable land, pasture.

FL (Oct)-Nov-Mar-(Apr) FT (Nov)-Dec-Apr.

N.Z. plants are referable to subsp. alba (Miller) Greuter et Burdet. This subspp. has also been known as S. alba, S. pratensis, Lychnis alba, S. macrocarpa, L. vespertina, and Melandrium album in N.Z. Earlier records of S. latifolia in N.Z. probably refer to S. vulgaris (see under that sp.).

Among the spp. of Silene and Lychnis in N.Z., only S. dioica and S. latifolia are dioecious. Characters distinguishing them from each other are given under S. dioica. The infl. on ♂ plants is often larger, and more irregularly branched, than the infl. on ♀ plants.