Species
+

Silene latifolia Poir.

Bladder Campion, White Campion, White Cockle, alfinetes

Climate known 67 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Silene latifolia, commonly known as white campion, is a dioecious flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to most of Europe, Western Asia and northern Africa. It is a herbaceous annual, occasionally biennial or a short-lived perennial plant, growing to between 40–80 centimetres tall. It is also known in the US as bladder campion but should not be confused with Silene vulgaris, which is more generally called bladder campion.

Text from Wikipedia, “Silene latifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Silene

Silene is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Containing between 500 and 900 species, it is the largest genus in the family. Common names include campion and catchfly. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Silene”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Caryophyllaceae
Described by
Poir.
Native to
Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia +56
Wild records
700 in range· 92 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
847mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 92 mm (CHELSA)
Light
8–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January, March and May to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 847 mm a year, wettest October at 92 mm, driest July at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Lychnis pratensis Raf.; Silene alba Burnat; Silene dioica DC.; Silene dioica var. rothmaleriana A.R.P.Silva; Silene macrocarpa (Boiss. & Reut.) Gren., 1857.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January, March and May to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (608 mm of 847 mm) takes 8 months, September to January, March and May to June. Mean temperature moves 16.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July, September and November to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 847 mm a year, wettest October at 92 mm, driest July at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

847 mm a year at the habitat, 608 mm of it September to January, March and May to June. Wettest month October at 92 mm, driest July at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 616 mm to 1274 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.3 °C, the absolute minimum -12.6 °C, about 30 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.0 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 24.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 847 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 602 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost27.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 8–39RH 59–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 602 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 4–129 / 5–1312 / 9–1615 / 12–1818 / 16–2222 / 19–2624 / 21–2924 / 21–2921 / 18–2517 / 14–2012 / 9–168 / 5–13
Night °C2 / -2–62 / -2–74 / 2–86 / 5–1010 / 9–1413 / 11–1716 / 14–2016 / 14–2013 / 11–1710 / 8–146 / 3–103 / -1–8
Rain mm75 / 45–12161 / 39–9863 / 41–9660 / 44–11464 / 48–10766 / 25–8356 / 10–8562 / 17–8976 / 43–10692 / 65–15388 / 57–15484 / 54–156
DLI10 / 5–1416 / 10–2024 / 17–2931 / 27–3636 / 32–4239 / 33–4639 / 32–4734 / 27–4226 / 19–3217 / 11–2211 / 6–158 / 4–12
RH %65 / 59–6862 / 58–6660 / 57–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 55–6259 / 54–6360 / 55–6261 / 57–6363 / 60–6565 / 60–6866 / 59–69

Each figure is the median across the 602 grid cells holding the 693 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 766:3678 (51.675, 3.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 602 distinct grid cells holding the 693 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 766:3678 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 51.50_3.750, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 0 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Altay, Buryatiya, Chita, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutskiya, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Inner Mongolia· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Azores, Madeira, Manchuria, Xinjiang, Japan, East Himalaya, New Guinea, Tasmania, New Zealand South, Alaska, Greenland, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Haiti, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Falkland Is.
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.296, 4.333 · in the densest population, 352 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 700 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 92 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 607 km away. 63 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 700 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Silene latifoliaSilene latifoliaSilene latifoliaSilene latifoliaSilene latifoliaSilene latifoliaSilene latifoliaSilene latifolia

Photographs: (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Forest Botial-Jarvis, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Silene latifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Sex-Determining Mechanisms in Land Plants
Miloš Tanurdžić (2004) · The Plant Cell
Qualitative and quantitative analyses of flower scent in Silene latifolia
Stefan Dötterl, Lorne M. Wolfe, Andreas Jürgens (2004) · Phytochemistry
Wild food plants used in the villages of the Lake Vrana Nature Park (northern Dalmatia, Croatia)
Łukasz Łuczaj, Norma Fressel, S.M. Perkovic (2013) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Evolutionary Strata on the X Chromosomes of the Dioecious Plant Silene latifolia: Evidence From New Sex-Linked Genes
Roberta Bergero, Alan Forrest, Esther Kamau, Deborah Charlesworth (2007) · Genetics
Microsatellite accumulation on the Y chromosome inSilene latifolia
Zdeněk Kubát, Roman Hobza, Boris Vyskot, Eduard Kejnovský (2008) · Genome
Rapid De Novo Evolution of X Chromosome Dosage Compensation in Silene latifolia, a Plant with Young Sex Chromosomes
Aline Muyle, Niklaus Zemp, Clothilde Deschamps, Sylvain Mousset (2012) · PLoS Biology
Comparison of MADS box gene expression in developing male and female flowers of the dioecious plant white campion.
Sabine Hardenack, Dingwei Ye, Heinz Saedler, Sarah R. Grant (1994) · The Plant Cell
Nursery pollination by a moth in Silene latifolia: the role of odours in eliciting antennal and behavioural responses
Stefan Dötterl, Andreas Jürgens, Karin Seifert, Thorsten Laube (2005) · New Phytologist
Genetics of sex determination in flowering plants
Sarah R. Grant, Andreas Houben, Boris Vyskot, Jiří Široký (1994) · Developmental Genetics

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Silene 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.