''Silene suecica'' (also known as ''Viscaria alpina'') is a species of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

in the family

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

. Its common name is red Alpine catchfly and its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is the mountains of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and Sweden but it is sometimes found near the coasts and it is also found in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

and the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

, Greenland and North America.

Description

Alpine catchfly is a perennial plant growing to a height of . The stems are unbranched and erect with a glossy surface often tinged with red. The leaves are in opposite pairs, the lower ones being stalked and forming a rosette while the upper ones are unstalked. The leaves are narrow and lanceolate with entire margins. The inflorescence is a small umbel and the flowers are fragrant. The calyx is five-lobed and tubular and a greenish-purple colour. The corolla is regular, from in diameter with five pink, deeply notched petals. There are several stamens, some of which may be vestigial, and five styles. The fruit is a five-chambered capsule. This plant flowers between June and August.

Distribution and habitat

Alpine catchfly is found in northern Europe including Norway, Sweden, Finland and Lapland and in the Alps, northern Apennines and the Pyrenees where it grows on rocks including extra-alkaline serpentine rocks, gravel banks beside rivers, sand banks, sea cliffs and nutrient-poor, stony areas. In Greenland and North America it is found on

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

, barren rocky areas, gulleys and riverside shingle, grassy slopes and sea cliffs. In general it thrives where other plants that are less tolerant of high concentrations of copper and heavy metals in the soil do not.

Uses

Because of its ability to grow in soils with heavy amounts of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

, ''Silene suecica'' is used as a copper content indicator in

geobotanical prospecting Geobotanical prospecting is prospecting based on the composition and health of surrounding Botany, botanical life to identify potential resource deposits. Using a variety of techniques, including Bioindicator, indicator plant identification, remote ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2306744 suecica Flora of Norway Flora of Sweden Flora of Finland Flora of the Pyrenees Flora of the Alps