Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Caryophyllaceae > Silene > Silene dioica

Silene dioica (red catchfly)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Silene dioica (syn. Melandrium rubrum), known as red campion and red catchfly, is a herbaceous flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native throughout central, western and northern Europe, and locally in southern Europe.
View Wikipedia Record: Silene dioica

Infraspecies

Silene dioica dioica
Silene dioica lapponica
Silene dioica var. dioica (Red catchfly)

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Bee Flower Color [2]  Blue
Flower Color [2]  Pink
Flower Type [3]  Dioecious
Hazards [3]  Although no mention of toxicity has been seen for this species, it does contain saponins. Although toxic, these substances are very poorly absorbed by the body and so tend to pass through without causing harm. They are also broken down by thorough cooking. Saponins are found in many plants, including several that are often used for food, such as certain beans. It is advisable not to eat large quantities of food that contain saponins. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish;
Lifespan [3]  Biennial/Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bees, Flies
Structure [5]  Herb
Usage [3]  The root is used as a soap substitute for washing clothes etc; The soap is obtained by simmering the root in hot water.
Height [3]  20 inches (0.5 m)
Width [3]  10 inches (0.25 m)
Light Preference [4]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [4]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [4]  Rich
Soil Moisture [4]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Silene dioica

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Erysiphe buhrii[7]
Puccinia behenis[7]
Puccinia chasmatis[7]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Arnold SEJ, Faruq S, Savolainen V, McOwan PW, Chittka L, 2010 FReD: The Floral Reflectance Database — A Web Portal for Analyses of Flower Colour. PLoS ONE 5(12): e14287.
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 5Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 9Ecology of Commanster
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0