Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica
Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica
The Eastern Daily Press headline read “Endangered wildflower once again blooming near North Walsham“. The wildflower was Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica, and it was thriving on two of Norfolk’s former railway lines now used as footpaths: on Weaver’s Way at Felmingham (between Aylsham and North Walsham) and on the Paston Way at Knapton (just outside North Walsham, to the north-east).
The newspaper article appeared in July 2017 and we kept a copy to remind us to look for the plant, but it wasn’t until early June 2019 that we finally made the trip.
We took the train from Norwich to North Walsham and then walked 2.5 miles south-west along Weaver’s Way to Felmingham. It is a lovely walk and the Dog Roses and Elder bushes were in flower. We stopped frequently on the way there and back to look at insects. We eventually reached Felmingham and found the Small-flowered Catchfly growing in a sandy cutting just west of the station, just as advertised.
The white-flowered form of Silene gallica (shown above) is pretty enough, but the Felmingham railway cutting was also home to plants with pink flowers, and plants with white petals blotched with red. The latter form is exquisite and known as Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria. It is easy to see why it is sometimes cultivated in gardens.
Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria
Silene gallica – pink flowered form
Silene gallica is in the Pink family, the Caryophyllaceae, and is a relative of Spanish Catchfly and Spring Sandwort, which I have already written about on this blog.
It is a lovely annual plant of disturbed, sandy ground, with sticky stems and leaves and campion-like flowers with five petals. In Britain it flowers from June to October, but from March to May in southern Europe. It grows up to 30cm (12 inches) tall. It is a native of Eurasia and North Africa but in Britain the plant is classified as an Archaeophyte (non-native plants that became established before 1500). According to Plantlife, Silene gallica var quinquevulneraria is only known as a casual of garden origin.
Small-flowered Catchfly needs disturbed ground to grow, and at Felmingham rabbits are providing plenty of this by burrowing into the sandy banks of the old cutting. Bramble clearance by the North Walsham Conservation Group, a local group of The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), has helped as well.
Elsewhere, the plant is mainly found in arable fields on sandy or gravelly soils, and on old walls and waste ground. It also grows in open, drought-prone coastal grassland on banks and cliffs, and in sand dunes in the Channel Islands. Seeds mainly germinate in autumn, but the seedlings cannot tolerate temperatures below -10 °C.
The plant was once widespread in the UK and has been recorded in 283 ten km squares as far north as central Scotland. However, it is in steep decline in Britain and has been given the status of “Red – Endangered & Critically Endangered”. It is covered by the Norfolk Biodiversity Action Plan and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (referenced by Plantlife in its species dossier). The information sheet for Plantlife’s “Back From The Brink” project gives useful habitat management advice.
As so often, modern agricultural practices are the main reason for its decline. Field margins are often removed and the land is sprayed with herbicides and fertilisers. If herbicides don’t kill off the plants, fertilisers enrich the soil and allow coarser plants to outcompete the delicate catchfly. On the Welsh coast, tourist developments are also a threat.
Sliene gallica has now virtually disappeared from northern Europe, but it is widespread in central and southern Europe and occurs as a roadside weed throughout much of the temperate world.
Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica var. quinquevulneraria, growing on a sandy bank.
Wikipedia lists two other English names for Small-flowered Catchfly – Common Catchfly and Windmill Pink.
The plant isn’t considered to be edible. The Plants For A Future website lists a couple of possible medicinal uses but you should look for cures elsewhere, given the plant’s rarity in Britain.