Silene coeli-rosa (L.) Godr. (syn.: Eudianthe coeli-rosa (L.) Reichenb., Agrostemma coeli-rosa L.) (W-Medit.) – A very rare and ephemeral alien. Found in 1956 on a dump near Mechelen (Galgenberg). Further recorded in Charleroi in 1995, without further details, and in 2013 on a worked-up, sandy canal bank in Grobbendonk.
The vector of introduction of Silene coeli-rosa in Belgium is uncertain. Elsewhere in Europe it is mostly associated with wild flower seed mixtures (see for instance Kurtto 2001). This may apply to the recent record in Grobbendonk.
Silene coeli-rosa superficially looks like Agrostemma but is usually smaller in all its parts (including much shorter calyx teeth). Moreover, it is glabrous whereas Agrostemma is hairy.
Selected literature:
Donnison I.S. & Francis D. (2002) Models of floral pattern in detached flowers of Silene coeli-rosa (L.) Godr. (Caryophyllaceae). Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 140(3): 229-235.
Kurtto A. (2001) Caryophyllaceae. In: Jonsell B. (ed.), Flora Nordica, vol. 2. The Bergius Foundation, Stockholm: 83-216.