Western Catchfly

Description

Silene occidentalis-is a perennial herb growing from a woody, leafy-caudex-and-taproot, sending up an erect, mostly unbranched stem which may be 60 centimeters tall. The lance-shaped leaves are up to 12 centimeters long around the caudex, and shorter farther up the stem. Flowers occur in a terminal cyme and sometimes in leaf axils. Each flower is encapsulated in a hairy, glandular calyx of fused-sepals. The calyx in this species can be very long, nearly 4 centimeters in length in subspecies-longistipata. At the end are five pink petals, each with usually four fringelike lobes at the tip.