Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Silene nocturna

Common name

Mediterranean Catchfly, Night-flowering Catchfly

Family

Caryophyllaceae

Where found

Gardens and waste areas. Mainly Sydney area. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.6 m tall. Stems covered with simple or more or less branched glandular hairs. Leaves opposite each other, 1-5.5 cm long, 2-12 mm wide, sticky-hairy, margins fringed. Flowers pink, appearing tubular, with five feeply forked petals, the free part at the top about 1.5 mm long or more. Flowers in few- to many-flowered clusters at the tops of the stems, each flower with a leaf-like bract at the base. The flowers only open at night. Flowering: spring

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Silene~nocturna (accessed 7 February, 2021)