''Silene uniflora'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

known by the common name sea campion.

Description

''Silene uniflora'' is a herbaceous

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

, similar in appearance to the bladder campion ('' Silene vulgaris'') but with flowers generally solitary. It is generally prostrate, mat-forming. The leaves are linear, grey-green glabrous and glaucous in opposite and decussate pairs, the flowers white with five deeply notched petals, the 5 sepals fused and inflated to form a bladder.

Distribution

''Silene uniflora'' is a maritime species, almost confined to Iceland, the Atlantic and Baltic Sea coasts of western Europe up to the

Kola Peninsula sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк , image_name= Kola peninsula.png , image_caption= Kola Peninsula as a part of Murmansk Oblast , image_size= 300px , image_alt= , map_image= Murmansk in Russia.svg , map_caption = Location of Murmansk Oblas ...

in European Russia, and the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores. In Britain it also occurs rarely in the mountains. It has been introduced to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Subspecies

The sea campion has five known subspecies, these are: *''S. uniflora subsp. cratericola'' (Franco) Franco: Native to

Mount Pico Mount Pico ( pt, Montanha do Pico) is a currently quiescent stratovolcano located on Pico Island, in the mid-Atlantic archipelago of the Azores. It is the highest mountain in Portugal, at above sea level, and is one of the highest Atlantic mount ...

, Azores *''S. uniflora subsp. islandica'' (Á. Löve & D. Löve): Native to Iceland *''S. uniflora subsp. petraea'' (C. Hartm.) Jonsell & H. C. Prent. *''S. uniflora subsp. thorei'' (Dufour) Jalas: Native to Southwest France (extinct in Spain) *''S. uniflora subsp. uniflora'': Atlantic Europe, the Azores, Madeira, extinct in the

Savage Islands The Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands ( pt, Ilhas Selvagens ; also known as the Salvage Islands) are a small Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Madeira, and north of the Canary Islands.30,000), white-faced storm- ...

References

uniflora {{Caryophyllaceae-stub