snowy campion

not listed

N4? - Apparently Secure

S2 - Imperiled

Threatened

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

Snowy campion is a 12″ to 36″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises from an elongated rhizome.

The stems are erect, unbranched or sparsely branched, and leafy.

The stem leaves are in opposite pairs. They are elliptic to lance-shaped, 2″ to 4″ long, ⅜″ to 1⅓″ wide, largest near the middle of the stem, smaller and withering toward the base. They taper gradually to a long pointed tip with concave sides along the tip. They are attached to the stem on a short leaf stalk or no stalk at all. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is an open, leafy cluster of 1 to 12 but usually 3 to 5 flowers.

The sepals are fused at the base into a tube (calyx) terminating in 5 short lobes. The calyx is ⅓″ to ⅔″ long, from less than ¼″ to ⅓″ wide. It has a broad base with a navel-like indentation. It is green and broadly tubular to bell-shaped. It has 10 obscure green veins with no obvious network of veins between them. It has no ribs and is either hairless or densely covered with hairs.

Flowers are about ½″ wide when fully open, and are on stalks that are 2 to 2½ times as long as the calyx.

The 5 petals are white, 2-lobed, with a stalk-like narrow base (claw). The 10 stamens and 3 styles protrude slightly from the calyx. The flowers open in the evening.

The fruit is a green, hairless, egg-shaped, 1-chambered capsule the same size as the calyx, with 3 teeth at the top that sometimes split and appear to be 6 teeth.

12″ to 36″

White

Moderate moisture. Openings in alluvial forests and meadows.

June to August

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 28, 29, 30.

The outlier in Morrison County (light green on the map) is from the Field Museum of Natural History (Botany) Seed Plant Collection in Chicago, Illinois. Three plants were collected in August 1891.

Native

Rare in Minnesota