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Nottingham Catchfly

Nottingham Catchfly

Silene nutans

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How common: Common

Nottingham Catchfly is a low, long-lived wildflower with drooping, creamy-white flowers that open in the evening and smell sweet. It is typically seen in dry, sunny, open places such as slopes, banks and light grassland. The species is widespread in Europe and reaches into western Asia, and has been introduced in a few other regions.

Did you know?

  • Its flowers open in the evening and give off a strong scent.
  • In the Nordic countries there are two forms: a hairy one and a hairless one.

About the species

Identification

Perennial, usually 20–40 cm tall, often with several upright stems. Stems are hairy and often sticky near the top. A base rosette of spoon-shaped to narrow oval leaves; 2–4 pairs of smaller stem leaves, the upper ones narrow. Flowering head loose, with many flowers hanging to one side. Flowers creamy white, opening in the evening and scented. Each flower has a long, slender green tube with ten purple veins, ending in five petals deeply split into narrow lobes. Fruits are small dry capsules. Differs from bladder campion, which has a swollen balloon-like tube and non-nodding flowers, and from white campion, whose petals are broader and less deeply split. Flowers in Finland in June–July.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

heath forest, meadow

Flowering

Jun–Jul

About the habitat

Dry, sunny slopes, sandy or rocky banks, open grassland on sandy ridges, road cuttings and verges, and scrubby hillsides. Native and established. Common in southern Finland, especially Åland and the southwest; rarer northwards, with scattered casual records in Ostrobothnia and western Lapland. The hairless form occurs only on the Gulf of Finland coasts and in Åland.

Sources

Photo: Евгений Маринкин, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6159152734

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Itämeri: karut rannikkometsät, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38114

Text: Pinkka: IPS-153 Flora of Subarctic Europe - Saxifraga-Subularia, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38114

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuokkukohokki

See also