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Silene latifolia
Also called White Campion, Evening catchfly, White Cockle, Wide Leaved Bladder Campion, Evening Lychnis
Silene latifolia, white campion, is a hardy annual, occasionally biennial or short-lived perennial, that grows 40–80 cm tall with white flowers from late spring to early autumn. It thrives in sunny spots with rich, well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil.
Silene latifolia, commonly known as white campion, is a dioecious flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to most of Europe, Western Asia and northern Africa. It is a herbaceous annual, occasionally biennial or a short-lived perennial plant, growing to between 40–80 centimetres tall. It is also known in the US as bladder campion but should not be confused with Silene vulgaris, which is more generally called bladder campion.
The appearance depends on the age of the plant; when young they form a basal rosette of oval to lanceolate leaves 4–10 cm long, and when they get older, forked stems grow from these, with leaves in opposite pairs. The flowers grow in clusters at the tops of the stems, 2.5–3 cm diameter, with a distinctive inflated calyx and five white petals, each petal deeply notched; flowering lasts from late spring to early autumn. The entire plant is densely hairy.
White campion grows in most open habitats, particularly wasteland and fields, most commonly on neutral to alkaline soils. Despite the wide array of conditions in which campion can thrive, it prefers sunny areas that have rich and well-drained soil. An example ecoregion of occurrence is in the Sarmatic mixed forests.
The Ojibwe people have traditionally used a root infusion of this plant as a cathartic, as documented in Huron H. Smith's 1932 ethnobotanical study of the Ojibwe Indians. Historical European folk medicine additionally attributed sedative properties to the plant, with infusions reportedly used for insomnia and anxiety, and leaf poultices applied to skin irritations and wounds.
Moss campion · Pink Family · Silene banksia · Maltese-cross · Silene cognata · Weed silene · Crown-pink · Forked Catchfly · Ragged Robin · Silene flos-jovis · Common catchfly · Nightflowering silene
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Silene latifolia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
