Scientific name: Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke
Common name: Bladder Champion
Description
Habit: A hairless or hairy perennial, to 80 cm high.
Stems: Erect.
Leaves: Opposite, simple, narrowly oval, pale-bluish colour.
Flowers: White, actinomorphic, 18-30 mm across, sometimes unisexual, in cymes; calyx strongly inflated, conspicuously pink net-veined, 10-18 mm; petals deeply divided into two; styles 3, ovary superior.
Fruits: A capsule.
Habitat: Cliffs, rocky and stony shores, harbour walls, roadsides, hedges, open gravelly habitats and rarely mountain-tops.
Distribution: Occasional.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No
Subspecies:
Silene vulgaris subsp. vulgaris
S. vulgaris subsp. maritima (With.) A. & D. Love
Subsp. vulgaris has smaller flowers, to 18 mm across, grows taller to 80 cm high and the calyx in fruit is narrowed at the mouth; tends to occur inland. Subsp. maritima has larger flowers, to 30 mm across, grows to 30 cm high with more spreading stems and the calyx sides in fruit are approximately parallel; it grows at the coast and occasionally inland on mountains.