White Campion

White Campion - Silene latifolia

Description

Medium to tall, stickily hairy plant, leaves oval lanceolate, the lowermost stalked the upper usually unstalked. Flowers white, 25 to 30 mm, in lax, branched clusters, the petals usually notched. Male and female flowers on separate plants. Calyx slightly expanded. Seed capsule with 10 erect teeth.

Similar Species

White flowered varieties of red campion, and the hybrid

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Capsule teeth are erect

Habitat

Arable and waste land, roadside verges.

When to see it

May to October

Life History

Short lived perennial, sometimes annual

UK Status

Common throughout most of Britain, scarcer in the west.

VC55 Status

Common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 410 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records

Photo of the association

Campion Aphid Group

Aphids of the Brachycaudus lychnidis species group - (B. klugkisti, B. lychnicola and B. lychnidis sensu stricto) can usually be found living on the upper parts of Red Campion plants but it also uses White Campion.

Photo of the association

Amauromyza flavifrons

The larva of the Agromyzid fly Amauromyza flavifrons mines the leaves of various plants including Campion. A short linear mine is formed, then a white blotch mine, the linear section sometimes is not visible under the blotch that is formed later. The blotch has a few small black grains of frass.

Photo of the association

Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae

Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae is a gall-causing anther-smut fungus that coats the anthers of White Campion. 

Photo of the association

Puccinia arenariae

The fungus Puccinia arenariae affects the leaves and sometimes the stems of a wide range of plants, most often recorded on Campions, where it is not considered to be a gall-causer.  Redfern & Shirley (2023) list Chickweed (Stellaria media) and Pearlwort (Sagina) as being galled by this species.  Only brown telia are produced.