About

Silene acaulis, known as moss campion or cushion pink, is a small wildflower that is common all over the high arctic and tundra and in high mountains of Eurasia and North America (Alps, Carpathians, southern Siberia, Pyrenees, British Isles, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Rocky Mountains). It is an evergreen perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae.

It is also called the compass plant, since the flowers appear first on the south side of the cushion. (Various other plants also have this name.)

How to grow it

The seeds should be sown early in the spring time. Put the seedlings into separate pots, and it is recommended to let them winter in the greenhouse for their first winter season. It is advised to plant them in the late spring or early summer because division takes place in the spring. They should be grown in well-drained soil with full sun. The climate can be cool.

Safety

There is no listing that moss campion is toxic, though it does have saponins which, though toxic, are hard to absorb in the body. They can be broken down by thorough cooking. Its advised to not consume large amounts of this plant.

Where it grows

Moss campion is common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America (south to the Alps, Carpathians, southern Siberia, Pyrenees, British Isles, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Rocky Mountains). In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington, and Alaska.

Uses

The plant used to be used for children with colic. The raw root skin plants were consumed as a vegetable in Iceland and in Arctic regions.

Other Silene plants

Pink Family · Silene banksia · Maltese-cross · Silene cognata · Weed silene · Crown-pink · Forked Catchfly · Ragged Robin · Silene flos-jovis · Common catchfly · Bladder campion · Nightflowering silene