Pringle's catchfly

Silene pringlei S. Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 23: 269. 1888; S. scouleri var. eglandulosa C. L. Hitchcock & Maguire; S. scouleri var. grisea C. L. Hitchcock & Maguire; S. scouleri var. leptophylla C. L. Hitchcock & Maguire

Stems slender, 20-70 cm, densely puberulent with deflexed, gray, short, eglandular hairs intermixed with stipitate-glandular hairs. Leaves: blade finely puberulent on both surfaces, often sparsely so; basal tufted, blade narrowly oblanceolate, 8-12(-25) cm × 4-20 mm (including petiole), base cuneate into petiole, apex acute; cauline in 3-8 pairs, ± connate basally, reduced distally, ± sessile, blade narrowly lanceolate, 2-10(-17) cm × 3-10 mm, ciliate at base. Inflorescences tending to be nodding with secund flowers, usually with 3-7 flowering nodes, slender, elongate, 4-30(-60) cm, retrorsely gray-puberulent, glandular or not, not strongly viscid, distal nodes often with cymes sessile and reduced to 2 pedicellate flowers, cymes of proximal nodes sometimes pedunculate on peduncles to 10 cm, with 2-5 pedicellate flowers; peduncle ascending; bracts leaflike, 4-20 mm. Pedicels ascending, frequently sharply deflexed at base of calyx, slender, ± equaling calyx. Flowers: calyx tubular to narrowly campanulate in flower, ± umbilicate, 11-14(-16) × 3-5(-6) mm, becoming turbinate or fusiform in fruit, puberulent, glandular with short-stipitate glands, veins almost always green, those of sinus slender, shorter than tube, those of lobes lanceolate, broadened distally, lobes 3-4 mm, margins membranous, apex obtuse with broad, membranous, ciliate tip; corolla white, often suffused with purple, sometimes greenish, clawed, claw lanceolate, broadened distally, ciliate, limb deeply 2-4-lobed, 5-8 mm, lobes narrow, usually with smaller lateral teeth, appendages 1-2.5 mm; stamens equaling claw; styles shortly exserted. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, slightly longer than calyx; carpophore 2-5 mm. Seeds brown, ± reniform, ca. 1 mm; papillae inflated, large. 2n = 60.

Flowering late summer. Subalpine meadows, open woodlands and scrub, rocky hillsides and canyons; 2000-3300 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Utah; Mexico.

Most of the collections of subsp. pringlei from Arizona tend to have larger calyces that suggest an affinity with Colorado material of subsp. hallii. Although subsp. pringlei is primarily a plant of high elevations in the arid regions of the southwest, its influence appears to extend as far north along the Rocky Mountains as the Canada-United States border, with many plants there showing some of the characteristics of this taxon.