Flora of New Zealand Series

red campion

Taprooted perennial. Stems unbranched or branched below, with soft eglandular hairs, also becoming glandular above, (15)-30-60-(80) cm tall. Lvs with soft eglandular hairs, green, lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, long-petiolate, becoming sessile above; lamina (2)-3-6-(10) × (1)-1.5-3-(4) cm. Infl. a (3)-7-10-(20)-flowered dichasium, sometimes unequally branched; pedicels 0-1-(2) cm long; bracts lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, green. Fls unisexual. Calyx with short to long glandular and eglandular hairs: in ♂ weakly 10-veined, cylindric, 10-14 mm long; in ♀ weakly 20-veined, ovoid, 12-15 mm long; teeth triangular-acuminate, erect or recurved. Petals pink to magenta; limb 2-fid; claw lobed at base of limb; coronal scales oblong, toothed at apex, 1.5-2 mm long in ♂, 1 mm long in ♀. Styles 5, erect or recurved at apex, 9-11 mm long. Capsule globose to broadly ovoid, included within or = calyx, 10-15 mm long, dehiscing by 10 revolute teeth; carpophore very short. Seeds dull dark brown to grey, reniform, rounded, bluntly warty, 1.2-1.4 mm long.

N.: about Wellington; S.: Westland, Canterbury, Otago.

Europe 1904

Occasionally naturalised on damp roadsides, river banks, under trees, plantations, usually a garden escape.

FL Dec-Jan-(Apr) FT Dec-Feb.

Among the spp. of Lychnis and Silene in N.Z., only S. dioica and S. latifolia are dioecious. These 2 spp. can be distinguished from each other by fl. colour (pink to red in S. dioica, white in S. latifolia) and posture of capsule teeth (revolute in S. dioica, erect to patent in S. latifolia). S. dioica and S. latifolia have 5 styles in ♀ fls, in common with Lychnis spp. in which, however, the fls are always ⚥.

This sp. has been known as Lychnis dioica, S. diurna, and Melandrium rubrum in N.Z.