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Rock Campion

Rock Campion

Atocion rupestre

Identify the Rock Campion from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Common

Rock Campion is a small, blue‑green plant of sunny rock outcrops. It sends up many thin, upright stems from the base and carries a loose spray of tiny white flowers in late summer. You usually see it on flat, lichen‑covered rocks with almost no soil.

Did you know?

  • It can grow on almost bare rock where few other plants survive.
  • Its numbers can vary a lot from year to year depending on how dry the season is.

About the species

Identification

A low, hairless plant 10–20 cm tall, branching from the base and blue‑green overall. Leaves are small and narrow oval, up to about 7 mm wide, spaced along the stems. The flower cluster is open and airy with many small white flowers; the petals end bluntly. The green cup behind the petals is slim, not swollen. Fruits are small dry pods that split to release seeds. Compared with bladder campion and sea campion, its flowers are much smaller and the green cup is not puffed up; it favours flat, lichen‑covered rocks. Flowers in July–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

rock

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Open, flat rock slabs with very thin soil, often lichen‑covered. Prefers sunny, very dry places exposed to wind and sun. Local in southern and central Finland, with a separate population in the Salla–Kuusamo area; absent from Åland.

Sources

Photo: Elias, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6399615533

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Rabelera-Ruta, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38126

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38126

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Abies-Allium, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38126

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

See also