Silene ovata, the Blue Ridge catchfly or ovate-leaved catchfly, is a herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is a perennial plant growing up to tall, that has numerous white flowers, each finely fringed with a tube. It has large opposite leaves without petioles, which are long and taper to a long point, and wide.Radford, A. E., H. E. Ahles, and C. R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, p.448Steele, W. C., ed. 1967. Wildflowers of the United States: Southeastern States, McGraw-Hill, New York, New York, USA, p.448
Flowering Jones lists the blooming season as from June to September.
Range While unknown in Florida, it occurs in most of the southeastern United States from Georgia, eight widely scattered Alabama counties, to Mississippi and Arkansas (where it occurs only in eight counties in the Ozark region), north into southern Illinois and Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia. The plants have a limited distribution range wide as indicated by their global G3 status.
Habitat A flora of Kentucky lists the species as occurring in "dry to mesic forests"Jones, R. L. 2005. Plant Life of Kentucky: An Illustrated Guide to the Vascular Flora. The University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, Kentucky, USA, p. 320. while the flora of North Carolina lists the habitat as "rich woods."
Chromosome count 2n = 48.Smith, E. B. 1988. An Atlas and Annotated List of the Vascular Flora of Arkansas. University of Arkansas Department of Botany, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA, p. 32.
Conservation status Silene ovata is listed as G3 on the NatureServe conservation status, meaning it is vulnerable and globally rare. Typically G3 species have 21 to 100 occurrences globally, or have 3,000 to 10,000 individuals globally.
Alabama S2. Arkansas S3, Threatened. Georgia Illinois Indiana Kentucky S3, Threatened. North Carolina Tennessee South Carolina Virginia
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