Common catchfly
Silene gallica
Family · Caryophyllaceae · Harmless
The small sticky catchfly of cornfields and sandy ground, with white or pink flowers on one side of the stem, often with a dark red blotch in the centre of each petal. It glues small insects to the stem, hence the English name.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Dunes and sand · Pine woods
Also known assmall-flowered catchfly, windmill pink
How to tell it
A stem covered in very sticky glandular hairs, with darker viscid rings between the nodes. Small flowers lined up on one side, with five petals often bearing a carmine blotch. A hairy calyx with ten marked veins.
What it is confused with
Bladder campion
Silene vulgaris
The calyx decides: inflated into a smooth bluish balloon on bladder campion, which is eaten, and narrow, hairy and sticky here, which is not worth it.
Open sheet →What it is for
No food use, unlike its larger cousin. The stem's stickiness is a defence against ants climbing up to steal nectar without pollinating.