Silene verecunda
San francisco campion, San Francisco Campion
Family: Caryophyllaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2
San francisco campion is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in central and northern Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Sutter Buttes, central western California, southwestern California, western Transverse and Intercept Ranges, and desert mountains in open areas, chaparral, sagebrush, oak woodland, pinyon and juniper woodland, and conifer forest at elevations up to 3,400 meters. Flowering during summer, this plant produces white to rose flowers with petals that have distinctive two-lobed limbs. Growing 10 to 55 centimeters tall with ascending to erect stems that are slightly rough or hairy and sometimes glandular, it develops a caudex with few to many branches. Its leaves vary from lower lance-shaped leaves 3 to 10 centimeters long to upper linear or lance-shaped leaves 1 to 4.5 centimeters long, gradually becoming smaller toward the stem's top. The fruit is an oblong to ovoid structure with a short puberulent stalk, containing dark brown to black seeds approximately 1 to 1.5 millimeters in size.
Habitat: Open areas, chaparral, sagebrush, oak woodland, pinyon/juniper woodland, conifer forest
Bloom period: Summer
Elevation: < 3400 m
Bioregions: c&s NCoR, SN (exc n SNF, Teh), ScV (Sutter Buttes), CW (exc s CCo), SW, W&I, DMtns
California counties: Fresno, San Bernardino, Kern, Mendocino, Alameda, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Sutter, Riverside, Tulare, Inyo, Alpine, El Dorado, Lake, Nevada, Orange, San Benito, Santa Barbara, Mono, Monterey, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Ventura, Calaveras, Colusa, Amador, Shasta, Lassen, Mariposa, Sierra, Glenn, Napa
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.