Silene multinervia

Multinerved catchfly, Multinerved Catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: annual · Native

Multinerved catchfly is a California native annual found in southern North Coast Ranges, central western California, and southwestern California in open areas and burned landscapes at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from spring to early summer, this plant produces white to pink flowers with delicate petals and distinctive glandular-hairy calyxes. Growing 20 to 65 centimeters tall with erect stems covered in short glandular hairs, it has a distinctive vertical structure. Its leaves gradually reduce in size from lower stems (5 to 13 millimeters wide and up to 8 centimeters long) to upper stems (2 to 8 millimeters wide and 0.8 to 3 centimeters long), with a lanceolate shape. The small ovoid fruits develop on short stalks, bearing black seeds approximately 0.5 to 1 millimeter in size.

Habitat: Open areas, burns

Bloom period: Spring-early summer

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: s NCoRO, CW (exc SCoRI), SW

California counties: Orange, Sonoma, Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Riverside, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Napa

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