(variety not specified) Flowers and fruiting bodies. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, east of Bungendore, NSW

(var. gallica) Flowers and fruiting bodies. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: AN Schmidt-Lebuhn, Illunie Nature Reserve, NSW

(var. gallica ) Flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, south coast, NSW

(var. quinquevulnera) Flowers. Photo: Linda Richmond, Baluk Willum Nature Conservation Reserve, Belgrave, Vic

(var. quinquevulnera) Flowering plant. Photo: Don Wood, south coast, NSW

Common Name

French Catchfly, Mediterranean Catchfly

Family

Caryophyllaceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb to 75cm tall.  Leaves opposite each other, the bases united and encircling the stem.  Leaves 1-6cm long, 1-15mm wide, flat, rough and sticky hairy.  Flowers tubular, with 5 lobes, white or pink (var. gallica) or pink with a large dark red blotch at the base (var. quinquevulnera), in raceme-like groups at the tops of the stems, each flower subtended by a leaf-like bract.  Records from NSW Bionet do not distinguish which variety is recorded from this region, except for one record of Silene gallica var. gallica.

Description (of var. quinquevulnera) and photo (labelled var. quinquevulnera but actually of var. gallica) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales pages 304-305

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Silene~gallica