Silene involucrata(Cham. & Schltdl.) Bocquet

arctic catchfly

WFO wfo-0000440385 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Silene involucrata, photographed by Samuelle Simard-Provençal
fig. a Samuelle Simard-Provençal, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205586429
Silene involucrata, photographed by Samuelle Simard-Provençal
fig. b Samuelle Simard-Provençal, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205586598
Silene involucrata, photographed by Piotr Lukasik
fig. c Piotr Lukasik, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146878693
Silene involucrata, photographed by Suzanne Carriere
fig. d Suzanne Carriere, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8114259
Silene involucrata, photographed by robinlanark
fig. e robinlanark, CC0 1.0 / obs. 76470765
Silene involucrata, photographed by Samuelle Simard-Provençal
fig. f Samuelle Simard-Provençal, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205586652
Silene involucrata, photographed by Rob Foster
fig. g Rob Foster, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31326493
Silene involucrata, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. h Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 47304194

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 20 botanical countries

Regions where Silene involucrata is native: Kamchatka, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Finland, North European Russia, Norway, Svalbard, Sweden, Alaska, British Columbia, Greenland, Labrador, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Yukon KamchatkaKrasnoyarskMagadanWest SiberiaYakutiyaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorwaySvalbardSwedenAlaskaBritish ColumbiaGreenlandLabradorManitobaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecYukon
Native distribution of Silene involucrata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Greenland GNL
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Yukon YUK
Kamchatka KAM ASIA-TEMPERATE
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Finland FIN EUROPE
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Svalbard SVA
Sweden SWE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 124 in flower of 142 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Silene involucrata observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 124 of 142 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 9 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 33 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Agrostemma involucrata (Cham. & Schltdl.) G.Don
  • Gasterlychnis involucrata (Cham. & Schltdl.) Rupr.
  • Gasterlychnis vahlii Rupr.
  • Gastrolychnis affinis (Vahl) Tolm. & Kozhanch.
  • Gastrolychnis involucrata (Cham. & Schltdl.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Lychnis affinis J.Vahl ex Fr.
  • Lychnis apetala var. elatior Regel
  • Lychnis apetala var. involucrata Cham. & Schltdl.
  • Lychnis brachycalyx Raup
  • Lychnis furcata (Raf.) Fernald
  • Lychnis furcata subsp. elatior (Regel) Maguire
  • Lychnis gillettii B.Boivin
  • Lychnis tayloriae B.L.Rob.
  • Lychnis triflora var. elatior (Regel) B.Boivin
  • Melandrium affine (J.Vahl ex Fr.) J.Vahl
  • Melandrium affine subsp. tenellum Tolm.
  • Melandrium affine var. brachycalyx (Raup) Hultén
  • Melandrium angustiflorum (Rupr.) Walp.
  • Melandrium angustiflorum subsp. tenellum (Tolm.) Kozhevn.
  • Melandrium furcatum (Raf.) Hadač
  • Melandrium involucratum (Cham. & Schltdl.) Rohrb.
  • Melandrium tayloriae (B.L.Rob.) Tolm.
  • Melandrium tayloriae var. glabrum Hultén
  • Melandrium tenellum (Tolm.) Tolm.

and 9 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.