SPECIES DESCRIPTION
SILENE GIGANTEA subsp. GIGANTEA
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE/Sect. SIPHONOMORPHA
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Silene (Gr) A name used by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus for
catchfly.
Gigantea (Gr) Unusually large or tall, gigantic.
General description:- Robust, short-lived, usually monocarpic perennial.
Stem:-
Leaves:-
Flowers:-
3) Petal-limb, 3-5 mm, greenish-yellow, deeply bilobed.
Fruit:-
Key features:-
1) Calyx clavate, truncate or umbilicate at the base.
2) Petal-claw only slightly exserted.
3) Flowers erect; inflorescence not directed towards one side (secund).
4) Capsule c. at least 3 times as long as anthophore.
Habitat:- Cliff crevices and ledges, occasionally in roadside gravel. 0-900(-1400) m.
Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean region. Fairly scattered
on Crete, but not common.
Flowering time:- Apr-July.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Acute:- Sharp, sharply pointed, the margins near the tip being almost straight.
Anthesis:- The period during which a flower is fully open and functional.
Anthophore. A stalk-like extension of the receptacle on which the pistil and corolla
are borne.
Calyx:- A collective name for the sepals - the outer whorl of organs in most flowers.
Capsule:- Dry fruit that opens when ripe. splitting from the apex to the base into
separate segments known as valves.
Ciliate:- Fringed with hairs - generally along the margin of a leaf, petal etc.
Clavate:- Club-shaped, thickened towards the apex.
Dichasium-(pl Dichasia):- Cyme with lateral branches on both sides of the main
axis
Inflorescence:- The flowering branch or branches, flowers and bracts above the
uppermost leaves on a stem.
Internode:- The portion of a stem between two nodes.
Node:- Points on the stem where the leaves arise; often regularly spaced.
Monocarpic:- Plants that flower and set seeds only once, and then die.
Ovoid:- Egg-shaped.
Obovate-Spatulate:- Inversely ovate, at the base, to paddle-shaped.
Petal:- The inner perianth segments when they clearly differ from the outer.
Petal-limb:- An enlarged upper part of the petals.
Rosette:- A circular arrangement of leaves usually sitting near the soil.
Truncate:- Ending abruptly - as if cut off. in more or less a straight line.
Tuberculate:- With small, wart-like projections.
Umbilicate:- Navel-like, with a small central hollow or depression.
Verticillater:- A condensed cyme produced at the leaf-nodes and often forming
distinctive whorls of flowers up the stem.
Viscid:- Sticky.