Common Name: PINK FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb; rarely dioecious (Silene), taprooted or rhizome generally slender. Leaf: simple, generally opposite (subwhorled), entire, pairs at nodes often +- connected at bases; stipules generally 0; petiole generally 0. Inflorescence: generally cyme, generally open; flowers 1--many; involucre generally 0 (present in most Dianthus, Petrorhagia). Flower: generally bisexual, radial; hypanthium often present but obscure; sepals (4)5, +- free or fused into a tube, margins generally scarious, more so on inner 2 or not, tube generally not scarious, awns generally 0; petals (4)5 or 0, generally tapered to base (or with claw long, limb expanded), entire to 2--several-lobed, limb generally without scale-like appendages adaxially, generally without ear-like lobes at base; stamens generally 10, generally fertile, generally free, generally from ovary base; nectaries 0 or 5; ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, placentas basal or free-central, styles 2--5 with 0 branches or 1 with 2--3 branches. Fruit: capsule or utricle (rarely +- dehiscent), generally sessile. Seed: appendage generally 0 (present in Moehringia).
Genera In Family: +- 100 genera, 3000 species: widespread, especially arctic, alpine, temperate northern hemisphere; some cultivated (Agrostemma, Arenaria, Atocion, Cerastium, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Sagina, Saponaria, Silene). Note: Apetalous Caryophyllaceae can also be keyed in Rabeler & Hartman 2005 FNANM 5:5--8. Taxa of Minuartia in TJM2 treated here in Cherleria and Sabulina; Pseudostellaria in Hartmaniella and Torreyostellaria; Vaccaria in Gypsophila; Velezia in Dianthus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald L. Hartman (deceased) & Richard K. Rabeler, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin & Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: CATCHFLY, CAMPION
Habit: Annual to perennial herb, +- erect, from caudex, taproot, or rhizome; rarely dioecious. Leaf: petioled or not; linear to oblanceolate, vein 1. Inflorescence: generally terminal, open to dense; flowers few to many, pedicels generally 5--40+ mm. Flower: generally erect, generally bisexual; sepals 5, fused, tube prominent, 4--38 mm, 2--13 mm diam, cylindric to bell-shaped, rounded, hairs various or 0 (walls between hair cells generally clear), veins generally 10+, generally dark, lobes or teeth 1--13 mm, < tube, triangular to linear; petals 5, 6--62 mm, claw long, limb entire or 2--6-lobed, appendages at junction of claw, limb 0--6, generally 2, basal lobes present or 0; stamens generally fertile, bases fused with petal bases to ovary stalk; ovary chamber 1 or +- incompletely 3--5, styles 3(4,5; if 5 then flowers unisexual, taxon dioecious), 1--35 mm. Fruit: capsule, cylindric to ovoid; stalk (from ovary stalk) 0--7 mm, generally glabrous; teeth 6 or 10, ascending to recurved. Seed: many, gray to red, brown, or black.
Etymology: (Greek: probably from mythological Silenus, intoxicated foster-father of Bacchus, who was covered with foam; from sticky secretions of many species) Note: Silene armeria moved to Atocion. Silene pendula L., a historial waif, known only from 1894 and 1915 collections at Golden Gate Park.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald L. Hartman (deceased), Richard K. Rabeler & Dieter H. Wilken
Reference: Morton 2005 FNANM 5:166--214; Mesler et al. 2019 Madroño 66:176--193