Summer Wildflowers: White Campion

While this flower is not native to Colorado, I was fascinated to learn about its morphology when I saw it on outside Gunnison last week.

Photo Credit: Hailey Robe

“Each flower has five white petals with deep notches nearly splitting them in half, and there’s a little extra frill of a collar at the flower’s center. The plants are hairy, which makes new leaves soft to the touch, and the calyces, already striking at a distance, look even wilder under a magnifying lens.”

Jessie Berta-Thompson, Lyons Recorder

This flower may seem unremarkable at first despite its lovely, white petals, but a closer look reveals its most striking feature: the calyx. This structure is the sepals of a flower that form a petal-enclosing whorl - which, on the white campion (Silene latifolia), is large, prominent, and lightly striped with pink.

The branching growth pattern of the white campion adds to its otherworldly appearance.

Photo Credit: Hailey Robe

These flowers are often found on roadsides or other disturbed areas - I found it on the side of a county road. They can be found in plains, foothills, and montane life zones, blooming from the summer into fall.