Silene gallica  L.   Caryophyllaceae (Pink Family)   Europe   Windmill Pink

                                         February Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Annual, usually erect, simple to branched, 1-4 dm. high, hirsute and strigulose, glandular-pubescent above; basal lvs. oblanceolate to spatulate, obtuse, the cauline somewhat narrower, 1-3.5 cm. long; infl. leafy-bracted, 1 sided, the pedicels 2-5 mm. long; calyx 10 nerved, 6-9 mm. long, glandular hairy, especially on veins, inflated in age; petals whitish to pinkish, slightly exceeding calyx, blades entire or toothed, the linear appendages 1 mm. long; styles 3, incl.; carpophore 1 mm. long; caps. 6-8 mm. long; seeds finely rugulose.

Habitat:  Common weed on vacant lots, in fields and waste places below Yellow Pine F.; cismontane and Channel Ids.; to B.C. and east.  Feb.-June.

Name:  Name said to have come from Silenus, foster-father of Bacchus, supposedly covered with foam, many spp. having a viscid secretion.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 342).  Gallica, means French.  The common name is derived from the fact that each petal is turned at a slight angle making the flower look like a tiny windmill.  (Dale 92).

General:  Occasional in the study area. Photographed on North Star Beach, the Castaway's Bluffs, the Santa Ana Heights Flats and the Eastbluff Burn area.  (my comments).   Perhaps 250 species, chiefly from temperate and cool regions of Northern Hemisphere.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 342).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 491; Munz, Calif. Flora 288; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 343; Roberts 18.

Photo Ref:  May 1 83 # 2; Sept 2 83 # 16; Mar 3 85 # 8.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by B. Hailey.  

First Found:  May 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 212.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 3/1/05.

                   March Photo                                                                 May Photo