Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Caryophyllaceae > Silene > Silene flos-cuculi

Silene flos-cuculi (ragged robin)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Lychnis flos-cuculi, commonly called Ragged-Robin, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is species is native to Europe, where it is found along roads and in wet meadows and pastures. In Britain it has declined in numbers because of modern farming techniques and draining of wet-lands and is no longer common. However, Lychnis flos-cuculi has become naturalized in parts of the northern United States and eastern Canada and has been listed as potentially invasive in some areas.
View Wikipedia Record: Silene flos-cuculi

Attributes

Bee Flower Color [1]  Blue
Flower Color [1]  Pink
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  This plant contains saponins; Although fairly toxic, these substances are poorly absorbed by the body, most passing straight through without any harm. Saponins can be found in a number of common foods such as some beans. 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 [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Bees, Lepidoptera
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]  The root contains saponins, a soap substitute that can be used for washing clothes, hair etc. It is extracted by boiling the roots in water; Do not overboil the roots because this will break down the saponins;
Height [2]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Width [2]  12 inches (0.3 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [3]  Mostly Infertile
Soil Moisture [3]  Wet
View Plants For A Future Record : Silene flos-cuculi

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Arnold 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.
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 6Ecology of Commanster
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
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