Flora of New Zealand Series

Taprooted annual. Stems 1-several, erect or ascending, densely hairy with very short glandular and eglandular hairs, (5)-15-50 cm tall. Lvs with dense short hairs, linear or linear-lanceolate, acute, sessile, (10)-25-70-(100) × 1-7 mm; upper lvs connate, 10-50-(75) × 1-5 mm. Infl. a 1-7-flowered asymmetric dichasium; pedicels 3-30 mm long; bracts ovate-acuminate, green, with short glandular and eglandular hairs. Fls ⚥. Calyx with dense short glandular and eglandular hairs, cylindric at flowering, ovoid at fruiting, broadest near truncate base, contracted at mouth, 10-15 mm long; veins 30, raised; teeth subulate, erecto-patent. Petals pink; limb very short, 2-fid; claw broad, lobed at base of limb; coronal scales oblong, obtuse, c. 0.5 mm long. Styles 3, erect, c. 10 mm long. Capsule ovoid, included in calyx, 7-10 mm long; teeth 6; carpophore 0 or very short. Seeds pale dull brown, reniform-flattened, bluntly warty, c. 0.9 mm long.

S.: Canterbury, C. Otago.

Mediterranean, C. and S. Europe from Britain to Ukraine, N.W. Africa, Asia Minor 1899

Riverbeds, dry roadsides, depleted tussock grassland.

FL Nov-Dec FT Nov-Jan.

The 30-veined calyx distinguishes S. conica from other spp. of Silene and Lychnis in N.Z.