Silene armena? Anyone know this one?

[Hill Farm]

 ???Silene armena. Received the seed from the Alpine Garden Club of BC exchange "leftovers" distribution last year, and this spring it germinated gangbusters. Two flats of healthy, gorgeous, leathery, broad-leaved blue-green tufts. But I can't find a reference to this anywhere - the few herbarium pictures of pressed plants show something much more grassy-foliaged - more like S. armeria. Anyone familiar with S. ARMENA? Assuming its blooms are some shade of pink. Any leads greatly appreciated! Not armeria as I remember it. Though I could be wrong. Silenes come, silenes go...the memory gets a bit foggy at times.

[Palustris]

I grow a Silene under this name. It is described somewhere as a winter growing annual. It starts off in September and flowers in the following May/June/July, then dies. It has leathery green leaves and the flowers are proper looking Silene ones of  a vivid pink. Will try and find a picture.
Think this is it.

[Hill Farm]

Aha! Thank you - I do believe this might be it. The foliage looks like it matches, and it looks like there are lengthening shoots which may well be bloom stems starting. Mine have had a long cool period and have grown quickly, so winter annual fits. Greatly appreciated! I was wondering what I had here. 

[Karaba]

I don't understand why it shouldn't be Atocion armeria (= Silene armeria). Palustris's picture really looks like this species which have broad leaves. Palustris's plant is definitely not Silene armena as you can see it on herbarium plate.

[TheOnionMan]

I don't understand why it shouldn't be Atocion armeria (= Silene armeria). Palustris's picture really looks like this species which have broad leaves. Palustris's plant is definitely not Silene armena as you can see it on herbarium plate.

The two species names are so similar I bet they get easily confused, it's clear the plant shown is the common Silene armeria. Karaba, I agree the herbarium plate shows a very different species, zooming into the year 1855 collection it is listed as S. dianthifolia, both "armena" and "dianthifolia" in The Plant List are marked as "unresolved", the Plant List also considers the genus Atocian a synonym of Silene.

Silene armeria page, lots of good photos.
http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=silene+armeria

This plant (Silene armeria) is also an escaped weed in many parts of the world, here's its non-native extent in North America.
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=SIAR

[Alan_b]

I like the idea of the winter-growing annual described by Palustris as it might suit my garden which gets very dry indeed over the summer.  But I'm not clear from the subsequent discussion which plant that actually is.  You can buy seeds of Silene armeria readily enough but there is no suggestion that you should sow these in autumn. 

[Palustris]

Sadly I cannot remember where I got it from, nor now where I got the info about it either. I have never resown it either since we first had it, nor have I collected seeds. It just sows itself all over the gravel garden and we pull out the ones we do not want. It definitely germinates in autumn and survives over winter for us. Be nice to have a proper name for it.

[Hill Farm]

Checking the flats this morning, I see definite signs of budding. I'll share a picture when these bloom. I've grown S. armeria (or something labelled as such) in the past, but I remember it as having much finer foliage. Though the leaves on these have definitely elongated over the last few days. It was very compact for the longest time - I was hoping for low-growing/tidy little mounds.

What are the odds that it's just a common old leggy S. armeria? Wouldn't be the first time seed exchange things are misidentified; right now I also have a flat of Silene "elizabethae" which I suspect isn't - the foliage is all wrong. Ah, well. Keeps us on our toes.

[Hill Farm]

The two species names are so similar I bet they get easily confused, it's clear the plant shown is the common Silene armeria. Karaba, I agree the herbarium plate shows a very different species, zooming into the year 1855 collection it is listed as S. dianthifolia, both "armena" and "dianthifolia" in The Plant List are marked as "unresolved", the Plant List also considers the genus Atocian a synonym of Silene.

Silene armeria page, lots of good photos.
http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=silene+armeria

This plant (Silene armeria) is also an escaped weed in many parts of the world, here's its non-native extent in North America.
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=SIAR

Thank you, Mark. I am leaning towards mis-identified seed - what I have here could well be S. armeria. I double-checked the seed packet - definitely "armena" - but such similar names easily confused at any stage in the proceedings. What I see in my flats does not match the S. armena herbarium plates, as far as I can tell.

[Karaba]

Hi,

Sorry for bothering you again with taxonomic details...

the Plant List also considers the genus Atocion a synonym of Silene.

The Plantlist is interesting and useful by its synthetic taxonomy of the plant world but is quite old, heterogenous and need some update.

As a genus should be monophyletic, if Atocion is synonym to Silene, Lychnis, Viscaria, Petrocoptis and few other genus should also be synonym with Silene since Lychnis is closer to Silene than Atocion . In the Plantlist, Lychnis is recognized as a valid genus (from Tropicos) but several Lychnis (as flos-cuculi and flos-jovis) are synonym of Silene  which is not coherent Actually, from many phylogenies, Lychnis is accepted as the sister group of Silene. Atocyon, Petrocoptis, Viscaria, Heliosperma and Eudianthe are on a common clade, sister of the Silene+Lychnis clade.

(I had a look to this problem because I've just identified Atocyon rupestre in a pot, Lychnis flos-jovis is flowering in the garden, Lychnis flos-cuculi in the pasture, Silene latifolia and dioica on the roadside and few other in the garden )