Silene bridgesii

Bridges' catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bridges' catchfly is a California native perennial found in the northwestern California, southern Cascade Range, and Sierra Nevada mountains in open areas and conifer forests at elevations of 600 to 2,400 meters. Flowering during summer, this plant produces white flowers with two-lobed petals 14 to 28 millimeters long, nodding gracefully on glandular stems. Growing 16 to 50 centimeters tall with decumbent to erect stems that are puberulent and sticky, it develops a caudex with one or few branches. Its leaves transition distinctively from lower oblanceolate to elliptic leaves 6 to 15 millimeters wide to smaller upper lanceolate leaves 3 to 12 millimeters wide. The fruit is an ovoid capsule with a short 2 to 3 millimeter puberulent stalk, containing small brown seeds.

Habitat: Open areas, conifer forest

Bloom period: Summer

Elevation: 600-2400 m

Bioregions: NW, s CaR, SN

California counties: Inyo, Butte, Fresno, Madera, Nevada, Tulare, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Shasta, Amador, Calaveras, Humboldt, Mariposa, Lassen, Trinity, Plumas, Yuba, Tehama, Mendocino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.