SILENE ALEXANDRINA

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE/Sect. DIPTEROSPERMAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Silene apetala var. alexandrina

Meaning:- Silene (Gr) A name used by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus for

catchfly.

Alexandrina (L) This taxon was originally described from Alexandria,

Egypt.

Comment:- Resembling Silene apetala, desribed below, but differing in the

following characters:

1) Plant small and slender.

2) Calyx veins conspicuously pilose, often reddish.

3) Petals longer than the calyx, pink.

General description:- Whole plant pubescent

Stems 10-35 cm, erect, branched, especially at base.

Leaves:- Lanceolate to linear-lanceolate; upper ovate-lanceolate. Lower pedicels as

long as or up to 3 times as long as the calyx.

Flowers:- Calyx 7-10 mm, ellipsoid-cylindrical, becoming broadly campanulate in

fruit; teeth triangular, acute. Petals absent, or included in calyx, or exserted, with

bifid limb up to c. 3 mm.

Fruit:- Capsule 6-7·5 mm; carpophore 1-2 mm. Seeds 1 mm or less, dull blackish-

brown.

Key features:-

1) Carpophore less than 4 mm.

2) Petals often absent

Below information relates to Silene alexandrina.

Habitat:- Loamy coastal flats, Lygeum steppe, dry open shrubby vegetation,

archaeological sites, 0-100(400) m.

Distribution:- In Greece not knovm outside the Aegean area. - Also Cyprus,

Palestine and Egypt, perhaps further distributed in the SE Mediterranean area, but

confused with S. apetaia. Rare on Crete currently known only from a few southern

coastal locations.

Flowering time:- Feb-Mar ‘

Photos by:-

FAMILY and GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

CARYOPHYLLACEAE

General description:- Herbs, more rarely small shrubs.

Leaves:- Usually opposite with alternate pairs are at right angles to each other

(decussate), more rarely alternate or arranged in whorls (verticillate), simple, entire,

with or without thin and dry (scarious) stipules.

Flowers:- Radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), usually hermaphrodite, often with

bracts on both sides of the main axis (bracteate dichasia) Sepals 4 or 5, free, or

fused and often united by thin and dry (scarious) strips of tissue (commissures)

alternating with the calyx-teeth. Petals (0-)4 or 5, free. Stamens usually 8-10, in two

whorls, the inner whorl opposite the sepals and he outer whorl opposite the petals

(obdiplostemonous). Ovary in the centre and above the other flower parts (superior),

one-celled (unilocular) at least above, with 1 to numerous campylotropous (ovule

with embryo-sac curved and at right angles to its stalk) ovules on a basal or free-

central placenta; stigmas (1)2-5.

Fruit:- Usually a capsule, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscing), with teeth

equalling the styles in number or twice as many more.

SILENE

General description:- Herbs or small shrubs.

Flowers:- Epicalyx absent. Calyx with (5-)10-30(-60) veins and 5 short teeth. Petal-

limb distinct from claw. Stamens 10; styles usually 3 (sometimes 4 on same plant),

more rarely 5.

Fruit:- With or without basal septa opening by 6 (more rarely 5, 8 or 10) teeth,

twice the number of styles; carpophore present. Seeds glabrous.

Sect. DIPTEROSPERMAE

Flowers:- Inflorescence of various types. Calyx not or scarcely contracted at mouth

in fruit.

Fruit:- Seeds kidney-shaped (reniform), with flat faces, the back deeply and acutely

grooved between 2 undulate wings.