thewesternisles.co.uk

Western Isles Wildflowers

Western Isles wildflowers is a collection of information about our Hebridean wildflowers including identification hints, traditional herbal uses and general plant lore.

 

Red Campion

Silene dioica

Gaelic name : Cìrean Coilich

Red campion is also known as robin hood, and adder's flower, and also shares the name cuckooflower with several other completely different species.

The .5" flowers can occur in a wide range of shades of pink and occasionally even as white, and it forms hybrids with white campion.

The teeth on the dry seed-pod of a red campion are rolled back, those of the white-campion are upright, the white campion is slightly scented at night.

Red campion can form large clumps, and spreads in an unpredictable manner, covering a large area, then not occuring again for some distance until once more it forms a large mat. It grows quite quickly and seeds spread around a parent plant.

The campions are members of the carnation family, several of which grow as wildflowers in the Western Isles: sea campion , white campion, red campion, moss campion, and the closely related ragged robin.

Red campion is a native plant of the Western Isles.

Photography © Suzanne Harris
Croir - Great Bernera - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
14 May, 2007