(pink campion)
Select an option below for more information on this species
Photo of Silene repens by Mary Beth Cook
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Silene repens is a perennial herb that grows in dry slopes of the rocky subalpine and lower alpine zone of the park, north of the Alaska Range crest in the Kantishna Hills and eastward. This species has cleft white petals and a characteristic strongly inflated red
calyx. Plants grow 10-40 cm tall with a single to several erect stems, arising from a branching underground
rhizome. Leaves are oppositely arranged,
linear-
lanceolate, and
ciliated. The flowers (5-20) are arranged in several branched
inflorescences (
cymes)
subtended by
bracts. The
corolla is fused at the base, the 5 white (sometimes pale pink) petals cleft. The
calyx is also tubular, purple in color and conspicuously inflated. Flowers are bisexual. Fruits are ovoid
capsules opening by six teeth. There are other plants in the park with opposite leaves and cleft white petals (including several
Stellaria species), but they lack a purple, fused
calyx below the petals.
Silene repens flowers mid to late summer.
Silene repens is
monoecious and insect pollinated. The fruit is
dehiscent and seeds are probably gravity and wind disseminated.
Silene repens is an amphi-Beringian species ranging from northern Eurasia (Siberia and Russian Far East) into Alaska to western Northwest Territory, and south along the Rocky Mountains into alpine Wyoming and Idaho. In Alaska, this species occurs north of the Alaska Range primarily in eastern Alaska, but also west into the Seward Peninsula and northward to the Arctic slope. In Denali, this species occurs in the hills and mountains of the northeastern quadrant of the park, north of the Alaska Range crest.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right, depicting recent Denali data.
Silene repens is a subalpine to alpine plant that is found between the elevations of 544 m and 1250 m, with an average site elevation of 982 m. This species strongly prefers steep, south facing slopes.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right. For more on how to interpret these figures, visit Understanding Data Presented.
Silene repens grows in meadows, sandy and gravely lakeshore and riverbanks, open woods, alpine slopes and scree.
Dry sites.
