Description

White campion is an attractive medium to tall, short lived perennial with a downy stem and opposite, paired leaves. The white flowers consist of five cleft petals joined at their base to form a tube which is surrounded by a green calyx. Flowers from May to October.

NB named Silene alba in older books.

Habitat Information

Once considered native it is now thought that White campion was introduced into Britain in the Bronze Age. It has a preference for deep, well drained soils in habitats such as hedge banks, the edges of arable fields and waste places.

Occasionally flowers that appear to have large purple anthers can be found. These are in fact the fruiting bodies of an anther-smut fungus called Microbotryum violaceum. The fungus effectively hijacks the flower and by mimicking anthers uses pollinating insects to spread not the plant’s pollen but its own spores to new plants.

Growing Information

Easily grown from seed sown at any time of the year.