Caryophyllaceae - pink family
1600 Apeldoorn Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2C1V5 |
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Agrostemma githago L., purple cockle, nielle An annual plant, introduced from Europe and Asia. Flowers purple; calyx prominently ribbed. It is extremely well adapted for growth in cereal crops, and was in the past, a very common plant of cereal fields. However, with the development and use of modern seed cleaning methods, it has now become nearly absent from cereal crops. Presently, purple cockle only occurs sporadically; and even then, mostly along roadsides, and in waste places. When purple cockle was a common plant of cereal crops, the ingestion of the saponins, contained in its seeds, resulted in sickness and deaths of livestock, fowl, and humans. Cerastium fontanum Baumg. subsp. vulgare (Hartm.) Greuter & Burdet [ =Cerastium vulgatum L.], mouse-eared chickweed, céraiste vulgaire Perennial, forming patches; stems spreading and often rooting at the nodes; flowers white; lawns, pastures, and cultivated land throughout; introduced from Europe. Silene noctiflora L., night-flowering catchfly, silène noctiflore Annual, spreading by seeds; autogamous; erect stems up to 18 inches (45 cm.) high; flowers white; unlike white cockle, both sexes occur in the same flower; when squeezed between the fingers, the flowers of this plant are sticky, whereas those of the very similar white cockle are not sticky; sporadic in disturbed habitats; introduced from Europe. Silene pratensis (Raf.) Godr. & Gren. [ =Lychnis alba Mill.], white cockle, lychnide blanche Biennial or short-lived perennial to 3 feet (9 dm.) high; flowers white; allogamous, flowers can be either male or female, the sexes on separate plants; hayfields, grain fields, roadsides, railway tracks, and waste places; found throughout, but less common in the mid-west; introduced from Europe. Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke [ =Silene cucubalus Wibel], bladder campion, silène enflé Perennial with deep persistent roots; spreading stems up to 18 inches (45 cm.) high; flowers white; hayfields, cultivated fields, waste places, and roadsides; widely distributed; introduced from Europe and Asia. Spergula arvensis L., corn spurry, spargoute des champs Annual, semi-prostrate; flowers white; grain fields, cultivated fields, gardens, and roadsides; widespread; introduced from Europe. Stellaria media (L.) Vill., ,chickweed, stellaire moyenne Annual or winter annual; autogamous; stems usually prostrate; flowers white; grain fields, cultivated fields, gardens, lawns, and waste places; widespread; introduced from Europe. Vaccaria hispanica (Mill.) Rauschert [=Saponaria vaccaria L.], cow cockle, saponaire des vaches Annual, spreading by seeds; stems 6 inches to 2 feet (1.5 to 6 dm.) high; flowers pale red or rarely white; sporadic in waste places, and along roadsides and railroad beds throughout our area; a troublesome weed in mid-western grainfields with fine-textured soils; introduced from Europe and Asia.. The seeds, containing saponin, when fed as an impurity in grain, has resulted in the poisoning of livestock. Click on a photo to view an enlarged image.
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