Silene Latifolia

Among my finds yesterday were a geocache in bad need of TLC (which I provided), a trail I had never been on before, and Silene latifolia (White Campion), an introduced species which nonetheless occupies a soft place in my heart. Why? I don't really know, except that it was one of the first plants I learned to identify. As for the trail, I only went up it far enough to find the geocache because I was actually on my way home, cold and tired following a caching CITO event, and because from that point on, the track began climbing Osborne Mountain on a sharp incline I didn't feel up to tackling. It was on my way back that I found the Silene, its slender, long leaves telling me "latifolia." I like it when the Latin is informative. All in all, I'd say it was a nicely productive day, and the Osborne Mountain trail and I will have to have another discussion in the future.

Silene Latifolia, Evening Catchfly

Day 267: In a fortuitous coincidence, as I was preparing this post for publication, a friend sent me an article about a related species. You might be surprised to learn that the Silenes have been around for a very long time. Shown above, Silene latifolia is known commonly as Evening Catchfly or White Campion. The name "Evening Catchfly" is also applied to similar S. noctiflora. They can be differentiated by counting the styles; S. latifolia has five, S. noctiflora only three. The petal shape is different as well, but not always the best indicator. Both were introduced from Europe, and can therefore be considered "weeds" despite their attractiveness. You might be led into thinking that they were insectivores from their common name, but no, they do not actually catch flies.

I mentioned that they'd been around for a long time. In an experiment a few years ago, Russian scientists were able to grow S. stenophylla from placental fruit tissue which had been embedded in permafrost for...sit down...32,000 years. The regenerated plants grew to maturity, flowered, and bore viable seed. Some distinct differences between the regenerated plants and present-day specimens of S. stenophylla (genetically identical) were noted in the general morphology, differences which have not yet been adequately explained.