SWEET-WILLIAM CATCHFLY
Silene armeria
Carnation & Campion (Pink) Family [Caryophyllaceae] 
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Carnation & Campion (Pink) Family [Caryophyllaceae]
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status
flower
morph
petals
stem
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| With glaucous leaves looking quite like Rose Campion with its all-pink flowers but the petals have gaps between them unlike those of Rose Campion. (The green toothed leaves belong to a differing plant)) |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| It differs greatly from Rose Campion in that numerous flowers are on short branches in bunches at the top. |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| There are gaps between the petals (the petals overlap in Rose Campion |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| The sepal tube is extremely long, almost concolorous with the petals and tapers towards the back in a manner perhaps unique to Sweet-William Catchfly (other Catchflys do not appear to have this shape). |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| Anthers are violet-coloured. |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| Leaves are glaucous, oval-wide, in pairs and attach to the stem without stalks. They might look as though they are amplexicaul, completely surrounding the srem, but they are not, they are separate leaves but they do have auricles that extend around the sides of the stem. |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| The leaves are glaucous and toothless. (The toothed green leaves are another plant!). |
| 26th June 2016, a garden, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. | Photo: © Bill Gilruth |
| The stem exudes a sticky brownish substance (dead centre and top left) to which insects become stuck, hence the name 'catchfly'. It is mostly sticky just below the inflorescence as can be seen by the reddish area on the second photo. In the past it was regarded as carnivorous, but not presently. The photographer, Bill Gilruth, has a theory that the sticky fluid prevents insects climbing up the stem to attack the flowers rather than being an aid to disable insects whilst it dissolves them, as most carnivorous plants do. Lacking a 'soup-bowl' in which incapacitated insects can be dissolved and digested (as possessed by most other, but not all, carnivorous plants) seems a non-starter for Sweet-William Catchfly. |
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Slight resemblance to : Rose Campion (Silene coronaria) Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : The extremely long concolorous sepal tube which tapers at the rear to an abrupt stop. It is a non-native garden plant of which it is a frequent escapee, often helped along by being thrown on waste places and tips. Your Author does not know if it lives up to its common name, smelling sweet, or whether it is the sticky fluid which it exudes on its stems tastes sweet. |
 Silene
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armeria
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⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ |
Caryophyllaceae
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 Silene (Campions) |
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Carnation & Campion (Pink) Family [Caryophyllaceae]
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BSBI maps