12. Silene falconeriana Benth. in Royle, Ill. Himal. Mts. Cashm. 79. t. 20. 1834. Rohrb., Monogr. der Gatt. Silene 202. 1868; Edgew. & Hook. f. in Fl. Brit. Ind. 1: 220. 1874; E. Nasir in Biologia 5: 66: 1959; Stewart; Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 252. 1972.
SHAHINA A. GHAZANFAR & YASIN J. NASIR
Biennial or perennial (?), up to 50 cm tall. Stems more or less leafy out, thick, simple or branched, pubescent below, glabrous above. Leaves 20-50 x 2-7 mm, oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate to linear, apex acute, base attenuate, pubescent or glabrous, martin ciliate. Bracts linear, acute with ciliate Inflorescence paniculate, the lateral branches ending in lax or congested cymes. Pedicel usually glabrous. Calyx 8-10 mm, cylindrical, narrow at the base, clavate and constricted below the capsule, in fruit ± glabrous; teeth triangular, obtuse with ciliate margins; nerves brownish, prominent. Petal greenish-yellow to reddish-brown, white (fide Hooker), limb c. 5 mm, spathulate, not lobed; claw 6-7 exauriculate. Coronal scales absent. Carpophore 2-3 mm, minutely pubescent glabrous. Capsule c. 8 mm, ovoid, barely exserted from the calyx.
Fl. Per.: July-August.
Type: (India) Tuen Manwa, Royle.
Distribution: Swat eastward to Kashmir, W. Nepal.
Specimens from our part of the Himalaya tend to have broader leaves than those found further east. Found up to 2200 m.
