Silene sargentii

Sargent's catchfly

Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sargent's catchfly is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, specifically in the Sweetwater and White Mountains, inhabiting subalpine forest and alpine areas at elevations of 2,400 to 3,800 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces white to red-purple flowers with delicate petals and distinctive two-lobed outer segments. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 10 to 15 centimeters tall, it features a dense caudex with many branches and glandular-puberulent growth. Its basal leaves form dense tufts, measuring 1.5 to 3 centimeters long and 1 to 3 millimeters wide, with a fleshy oblanceolate shape that becomes increasingly linear and reduced toward the stem. The fruit is a small ovoid structure with a woolly-puberulent stalk, bearing seeds 1 to 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Subalpine forest, alpine

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 2400-3800 m

Bioregions: SNH, SNE (Sweetwater, White mtns)

California counties: Fresno, Mono, Alpine, Inyo, Madera, Tulare, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Mariposa, Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer

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