Silene scouleri ssp. scouleri (Scouler’s catchfly)
Silene scouleri ssp. scouleri (Scouler’s catchfly)
A summer- flowering obscure beauty
by Doreen Smith
This plant of rocky slopes and sandy coastal bluffs is an uncommon herbaceous perennial found on Point Reyes in Marin County.
It is a pink to red flowered catchfly, so–called because of its sticky glandular stems and calyces.
The Consortium of Herbaria has voucher collections, many not recent, only from San Mateo County northwards to British Columbia.
The species is named after John Scouler (1804 – 1871), a Scottish naturalist. He sailed on a Hudson’s Bay Company ship in 1824 to the Columbia river in the company of the botanist, Davdi Douglas.
He collected a large number of plants in Western North America and the Galapagos, and several are named after him.
Photos by Vernon Smith
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