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Portrait of Moss campion

Nature · Wildflowers & flowers

Moss campion

Native · flowers Jun–Aug · mountain ledges, screes and high tops

Silene acaulis — Caryophyllaceae

Moss campion is a dense, bright green, rounded cushion of tiny leaves, spangled in summer with stemless pink flowers, that grows on high mountain rock in the Scottish Highlands and a few northern English and Welsh tops. It is a textbook arctic-alpine adaptation to cold, wind and drought, and the cushion warms itself above the air temperature. It can even be found on the summit of Ben Nevis.

How to spot them

  • ▸A tight, domed, moss-like cushion of narrow, pointed, bright green leaves, old cushions spreading to tens of centimetres across
  • ▸Small pink, five-petalled flowers sitting directly on the cushion on very short stalks, from July to August on Ben Nevis
  • ▸Grows on mountain ledges, rock, screes and summit gravel, mostly in the Highlands
  • ▸Cushion habit: the packed leaves trap heat, cut water loss and resist wind and ice-blast
  • ▸Look-alike: sea campion, which can make cushions on coastal cliffs but has white flowers; thrift, which forms pink-flowered cushions but with long-stalked round heads; and true mosses

How to know it

Dense, mounded green cushion on a Highland summit, studded with tiny stemless pink flowers in July and August

Moss campion, Silene acaulis.

The specific name means 'stemless', and the packed cushion traps heat so that its temperature is well above the air's

Silene acaulis — moss campion, NTS.

Its tight cushion reduces water loss and is aerodynamic against wind and ice abrasion

Moss campion — an arctic-alpine adaptation.

On Ben Nevis it is worth climbing to the top to see it, Plantlife says, with the dainty pink flowers on short stalks

Moss campion.

Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve, with the most extensive arctic-alpine populations in Britain, is a stronghold of this pink cushion plant

Moss campion — National Trust for Scotland.

A member of the pink family, like the carnation and sea campion, it is a high-mountain relative of a plant that lives on coastal cliffs

Moss campion.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Native arctic-alpine perennial of the pink family Caryophyllaceae; acaulis = stemless
  • •Found in the Scottish Highlands, on Ben Nevis and Ben Lawers, and on a few mountains in northern England and Wales
  • •Plantlife notes it flowers on Ben Nevis in July and August, and the cushion shape protects it from cold, drying winds
  • •The tightly packed leaves trap heat so the cushion is considerably warmer than the air, and reduces water loss and wind and ice abrasion (National Trust for Scotland)
  • •Cushions grow slowly, taking many years before they first flower, and old cushions may be very large
  • •Plants have differing sex forms, with cushions carrying either female, male or hermaphrodite flowers
  • •Ben Lawers NNR has the most extensive populations of arctic-alpine plants in Britain (NTS)
  • •Cold-adapted plants like this are vulnerable to climate warming and habitat change

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources