Silene or not?

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Plant Identification

I found this high up (3500m) in the mountains of eastern Turkey.
But what is it, any suggestions?

Comments

Mark McDonough

Re: Silene or not?

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 10:33am

Hoy wrote:

I found this high up (3500m) in the mountains of eastern Turkey.
But what is it, any suggestions?

Trond, when I first saw this, it reminded me of a Gypsophila I grew from the MacPhail and Watson expedition to Turkey in 1977, Gypsophila briquetiana, which is still available in some nurseries. I looked at the Van Flora site, and found photos of Gypsophila adenophylla that look like your plant. There are more than 50 Gypsophila species in Turkey (only a few are pictured on the Van Flora site), over 100 Silene, and even Saponaria and Lychnis are possibilities, but my first guess is Gypsophila, amd maybe the species adenophylla.

http://vanherbaryum.yyu.edu.tr/flora/famgenustur/caryo/gypsophila/gad/in...

http://vanherbaryum.yyu.edu.tr/flora/famgenustur/caryo/gypsophila/gad/pa...

Trond Hoy

Re: Silene or not?

Fri, 03/19/2010 - 10:27am

As you say, Mark, it is lots of possibilities. I considered Gypsophila but my flora had none like this. But maybe G. adenophylla is right. The mountains (many volcanoes) of Eastern Turkey are separated by many miles so a lot of different populations may exist.