Red Campion

Red Campion (Silene dioica)

One of the things that has been blooming like mad in the garden for weeks is Red Campion (Silene dioica), also known as Red Catchfly in North America. It's pushed up a clump that measures nearly a metre in diameter, and displays a mix of pink and white flowers, which may indicate that there's more than one plant involved. White flowers are rare but not unknown on Red Campion; occasionally, mutations cause the loss or suppression of the red pigments. Hairy, oblong leaves grow in pairs on opposite sides of its tall, equally hairy stems. The flower's five, deeply-cut petals are fused at the base, and surrounded by a purplish-brown sheath. Unlike most plants, which have flowers containing both male and female parts, Red Campion flowers are single-sexed, and all the flowers on a particular plant will be that one sex. For example, the plant pictured above is male, with five white, pollen-carrying anthers sprouting from the centre of each flower. The plant blooms from May to July, with fruits developing on female plants from June to August.

This robust but short-lived perennial is typically found in lightly shaded woodlands, but also grows in ditches, grasslands, hedgerows, along roadsides, and in urban areas. Supposedly, it doesn't grow well in dry, sunny gardens, but the one in our garden does precisely exactly that! It's popular with pollinators, attracting a variety of butterflies, moths, bees and long-tongued hoverflies to its pollen-rich (if male), nectar-filled flowers. The tubular flowers prove challenging to shorter tongued bees, but some — like various bumblebees — learn to chew their way through the base of the flower to reach the nectaries. Its boiled roots were formerly used as soap, and the seeds were used to treat snake bite. Red Campion is common and widespread across the British Isles, and northern and central Europe, less so in southern Europe. It has also been widely introduced across North America.