Silene grayi

Gray's catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Gray's catchfly is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges and northern California Ranges in chaparral, conifer forest, and alpine habitats at elevations of 1,200 to 2,900 meters. Flowering during summer, this plant produces delicate pink to purple flowers with petals 3 to 5 millimeters long that nod gracefully. Growing 10 to 20 centimeters tall with decumbent to erect stems that are puberulent and glandular toward the top, it forms a dense caudex with many branching stems. Its leaves are distinctively fleshy, with basal leaves forming tufted clusters 1.5 to 4 centimeters long and narrowly oblanceolate, while cauline leaves become progressively smaller and more linear upward. The fruit is a small ovoid capsule carried on short puberulent stalks, containing brown seeds 2 to 3 millimeters long.

Habitat: Chaparral, conifer forest, alpine

Bloom period: Summer

Elevation: 1200-2900 m

Bioregions: KR, n CaR

California counties: Siskiyou, Del Norte, Shasta, Trinity, Humboldt, Tehama

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