Silene italica

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Silene italica
Silene italica 1.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Genus: Silene
Species:
S. italica
Binomial name
Silene italica
(L.) Pers.
Synonyms
  • Cucubalus italicus
  • Viscago italica

Silene italica is a species of plant native to Southern Europe and parts of Asia. It is also introduced to parts of the United States and Northern Europe.

Contents

Silene italica is similar to Silene nutans [1] and contains various subspecies.

Common names

In English, it goes by the common name Italian catchfly. [2] While in Denmark it is called Italiensk limurt and in Germany it is called Italienisches Leimkraut. [3]

Etymology

Silene is the feminine form of Silenus, an Ancient Greek woodland deity who was the companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus.

Italica is the feminine form of Italicus, meaning "of Italy"

Subspecies

The following is a list of subspecies for S. Italica.

Characteristics

It can grow up to 40 cm or 80 cm high and the stems are erect. The species has kidney-shaped seeds. [7] The petals on the flowers can be pink, white, or yellow. [8]

Sexual system

It is gynodioecious–gynomonoecious and has a low frequency of female plants. [9] Gynomonoecious individuals are common in the species and make up to 40% of the population. [10]

Floral scent

A study from 2002 found that both terpenoids and benzenoids were dominating over the floral scent of S. Italica. [11] The study also found that chemical composition of S. Italica’s floral scent is

Distribution and habitat

Plants of the World Online says is native to places like Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Iran, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Palestine, Turkmenistan, Romania, and France and that it is present in Corsica, Denmark, Great Britain, and Germany but not native. [4]

But the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International says that it was introduced to Belgium with it first being reported in 1918 and is also present in Austria and Slovakia. [3]

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, it was introduced to New Jersey and New York. [12]

Throughout the Mediterranean region, S. Italica occurs in hedges as well as open woodlands. [13] :162 In southern France it is commonly found in the garrigue. [10]

In Britain, it naturally occurs on chalky roadside banks and chalk quarries between Dartford and Greenhithe. It was first cultivated on the island in 1759 but was first found in the wild in 1863. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Silene</i> Genus of flowering plants

Silene is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Containing nearly 900 species, it is the largest genus in the family. Common names include campion and catchfly. Many Silene species are widely distributed, particularly in the northern hemisphere.

<i>Populus nigra</i> Species of plant

Populus nigra, the black poplar, is a species of cottonwood poplar, the type species of section Aigeiros of the genus Populus, native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa.

<i>Silene dioica</i> Species of flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae

Silene dioica, known as red campion and red catchfly, is a herbaceous flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to Europe and introduced to the Americas.

<i>Silene nutans</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene nutans is a flowering plant in the genus Silene, most commonly known as Nottingham catchfly.

<i>Silene laciniata</i> Species of herb

Silene laciniata is a perennial herb in the family (Caryophyllaceae), commonly known as fringed Indian pink, cardinal catchfly, Mexican campion, Mexican-pink, and campion.

<i>Silene antirrhina</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene antirrhina is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names sleepy silene and sleepy catchfly. It is native to the Americas and has been introduced to Europe.

<i>Silene campanulata</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene campanulata is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names Red Mountain catchfly and bell catchfly. It may be a synonym of Silene greenei.

<i>Silene douglasii</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene douglasii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name Douglas's catchfly.

<i>Silene gallica</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene gallica is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by several common names, including common catchfly, small-flowered catchfly, and windmill pink. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but it can be found throughout much of the temperate world as a common roadside weed.

<i>Silene scouleri</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene scouleri is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names simple campion and Scouler's catchfly.

<i>Silene verecunda</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene verecunda is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name San Francisco campion.

<i>Stellaria longipes</i> Species of flowering plant

Stellaria longipes is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common names longstalk starwort and Goldie's starwort. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northernmost latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a perennial herb that grows in a wide variety of habitat types, including tundra and taiga and many areas farther south with subalpine and alpine climates. It is extremely variable in morphology, its form depending on both genetic makeup and environmental conditions. It has a widely varying number of chromosomes. In general, it is a rhizomatous perennial herb forming mats or clumps, or growing erect. The stems may be short and simple or with sprawling and highly branched. The linear to lance-shaped leaves are usually 1 to 4 centimeters long and are oppositely arranged in pairs. The inflorescence bears one or more flowers, each on a short pedicel. The flower has five pointed green sepals each a few millimeters long. There are five white petals each divided into two lobes, sometimes shallowly, but often so deeply there appear to be two petals. The plant is gynodioecious, with some flowers having functional male and female reproductive parts and others being only female.

<i>Silene regia</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene regia is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name royal catchfly. It is native to the central United States. A perennial herb, it grows from a fleshy taproot and has several erect stems growing up to 1.6 meters tall. The leaves are lance-shaped to oval and up to 12 centimeters (4.7 in) long, becoming smaller farther up the stem. The inflorescence is an array of many flowers at the top of the stem. The elongate tubular calyx of sepals is up to 2.5 centimeters (0.98 in) long and has 10 longitudinal veins. The lobes of the bright red corolla are 1 to 2 centimeters long.

<i>Silene uniflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene uniflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name sea campion.

<i>Tulipa sylvestris</i> Species of flowering plant

Tulipa sylvestris, the wild tulip or woodland tulip, is a Eurasian and North African species of wild tulip, a plant in the lily family. Its native range extends from Portugal and Morocco to western China, covering most of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Basins, and Central Asia. The species is also cultivated as an ornamental and naturalized in central and northern Europe as well as a few scattered locations in North America. It was first recorded as being naturalised in Britain in the late 17th century.

<i>Clinopodium menthifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Clinopodium menthifolium, commonly known as the wood calamint or woodland calamint, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is found throughout southern and central Europe from the United Kingdom and east as far as temperate parts of Asia, and as south as North Africa. It grows up to 1,700 m (5,600 ft) in elevation.

<i>Silene otites</i> Species of plant in the genus Silene

Silene otites, called Spanish catchfly, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Silene, native to Europe and the Transcaucasus area, and introduced to Xinjiang in China. It varies its floral odors to attract mosquitoes and moths at night and flies and bees by day. It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants.

<i>Silene supina</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene supina is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.

Silene disticha is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. The species is hermaphroditic and is native to Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Tunisia.

<i>Silene stockenii</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene stockenii is a species of flowering plant in the Caryophyllaceae first described in 1973. The specific epithet is named after Christopher Maitland Stocken, who discovered it in 1962 in Bornos. It is native to Spain, where it is endemic to grasslands growing in calcareous soil on formations made from calcarenite west of Cádiz in Andalusia. It is currently listed as critically endangered. In 1993, the number of individuals belonging to this species was estimated to be below 2000.

References

  1. 1 2 "Silene italica | Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora". plantatlas.brc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
  2. "ITIS - Report: Silene italica". www.itis.gov. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
  3. 1 2 "Silene italica". www.cabi.org. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
  4. 1 2 "Silene italica (L.) Pers. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  5. "Silene italica (L.) Pers. — The Plant List". www.theplantlist.org. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  6. "Catalogue of Life - 2014 Annual Checklist :: Species details". www.catalogueoflife.org. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  7. Bojnanský, Vít; Fargašová, Agáta (2007-09-17). Atlas of Seeds and Fruits of Central and East-European Flora: The Carpathian Mountains Region. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 73. ISBN   978-1-4020-5362-7.
  8. Stace, Clive (2010-04-01). New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. pp. 471–472. ISBN   978-1-139-48649-1.
  9. Casimiro-Soriguer, Inés; Buide, Maria L.; Narbona, Eduardo (2015-05-15). "Diversity of sexual systems within different lineages of the genus Silene". AoB Plants. 7: plv037. doi:10.1093/aobpla/plv037. ISSN   2041-2851. PMC   4433491 . PMID   25862920.
  10. 1 2 LAFUMA, LUCILE; MAURICE, SANDRINE (2006-04-01). "Reproductive characters in a gynodioecious species, Silene italica (Caryophyllaceae), with attention to the gynomonoecious phenotype". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 87 (4): 583–591. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2006.00597.x. ISSN   0024-4066.
  11. 1 2 Jürgens, A.; Witt, T.; Gottsberger, G. (2002-05-01). "Flower scent composition in night-flowering Silene species (Caryophyllaceae)". Biochemical Systematics and Ecology. 30 (5): 383–397. doi:10.1016/S0305-1978(01)00106-5. ISSN   0305-1978.
  12. "USDA Plants Database". plants.usda.gov. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  13. Jashemski, Wilhelmina Feemster; Meyer, Frederick G. (2002-09-19). The Natural History of Pompeii. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-80054-9.