White notched flowers on sticky-hairy stems on open verges and field margins, scented with cloves at night to attract moths
White campion — Silene latifolia.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
White campion
Archaeophyte (thought to arrive with Neolithic farmers) · flowers May–Oct · verges, field margins and waste ground
Silene latifolia — Caryophyllaceae
White campion is the clean white counterpart of red campion, flowering from May to October on open verges, arable margins and waste ground rather than in shade. Its flowers open in the evening and smell of clove to attract moths. It is thought to have come to Britain with Neolithic farmers, and it hybridises with red campion to give pinkish-white plants.
How to spot them
- ▸White flowers with five deeply notched petals, so each looks almost like ten, rising from an inflated, hairy, veined calyx
- ▸Sticky-hairy stems and hairy, opposite, oval leaves
- ▸Grows in open, sunny, disturbed ground rather than shady woodland: verges, field edges, waste ground
- ▸Flowers are open in the evening and give off a clove-like scent at night, drawing moths
- ▸Look-alikes: red campion has pink-red flowers and grows in shade; bladder campion has a papery, balloon-like calyx and is less hairy; the two campions hybridise to give pinky-white flowers
How to know it
Thought to have been brought to Britain by Neolithic farmers, its remains have turned up on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites
White campion — an archaeophyte.
Its root has been used as a soap substitute for washing clothes and hair
White campion.
An ingredient of Elizabethan pot pourri in the sixteenth century
White campion.
The white-flowered parent of a pinkish hybrid that turns up where it grows beside its red-flowered cousin
White campion crosses with red campion to give Silene × hampeana.
Flowers from May to October on disturbed ground and is common throughout the British Isles, though slightly declining at the western edge of its range
White campion.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Caryophyllaceae; dioecious, like red campion
- •Plantlife: flowers May to October; common throughout the British Isles; slightly declined at the western edge of its range
- •Thought to have been introduced by Neolithic farmers, and found on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites
- •At night the flowers give off a clove scent, attracting many feeding moths
- •An ingredient in sixteenth-century Elizabethan pot pourri
- •The root has been used as a soap substitute
- •Hybridises with red campion, giving pinkish-white flowers; the hybrid is called Silene × hampeana
- •Grows on waste ground, roadside verges, hedgerows and well-drained arable field margins
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Sources
- Plantlife — White Campion
- Woodland Trust — Red campion (Silene dioica)