Silene conoidea

Large sand catchfly, Large Sand Catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Large sand catchfly is a naturalized annual found in northern Sierra Nevada, southern California, and desert regions of southern California in disturbed, open areas at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering in early summer, this plant produces white, pink, or pale purple flowers with delicate petals 8 to 12 millimeters long. Growing 50 to 80 centimeters tall with erect stems that are puberulent and glandular toward the upper parts, it has a distinctive upward-tapering leaf structure. Its leaves range from lower lance-shaped blades 5 to 12 centimeters long to smaller upper leaves 1 to 8 centimeters long, gradually reducing in width from 5 to 10 millimeters to 3 to 8 millimeters. The fruit is an ovoid to conical capsule borne on a short stalk 1 to 2.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Uncommon. Disturbed, open areas

Bloom period: Early summer

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: n SN, SCo, DSon

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