'Siienus'was the jolly Greek god of the woodland, often drunk, and supposedly covered in sticky foam. Female flowers in the Silene genus, the Campions or 'Catchflies', produce a froth that helps in pollination by visiting insects. The Red Campion is a common woodland perennial, providing a splash of pink along hedgerows in late spring and summer. The soft, hairy plant with paired oval or oblong leaves prefers damp soil, and you can see the wheel-like dark pink flowers along the towpath from May. The unscented flowers withtheir five deeply notched petals, meeting in an urn-shaped purple-brown calyx, open during the daylight. Male and female flowers occur on separate plants and, after cross-pollination by insects, numerous seeds are produced in an ovoid capsule from July.
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