White campion

Silene latifolia

Family · Caryophyllaceae · Harmless

The campion with large white flowers that open at dusk and scent the verge all night, because night moths pollinate them. By day it is barely noticed.

Where it grows

Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Uplands

Also known as

bladder campion of the night, white cockle

In flower

How to tell it

The whole plant is hairy and sticky, unlike bladder campion, which is smooth and bluish. White flowers with five petals deeply split in two. An inflated but hairy calyx, with ten or twenty veins. Male and female plants are separate.

What it is confused with

Bladder campion

Silene vulgaris

Harmless confusion

This is the confusion that matters, because one is a prized wild vegetable and the other is not. Run a finger over it: bladder campion is smooth and bluish, this is hairy and sticky. And this one opens at night.

Open sheet →

What it is for

No relevant food use, unlike bladder campion. It counts as an observation: it is one of the few plants in our fields that does all its business at night.

Sources

Flora-On