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Silene parishii; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2025-10-11

Silene parishii S.Watson

Parish's catchfly

Caryophyllaceae · California

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Silene parishii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSilene parishii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSilene parishii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSilene parishii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSilene parishii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSilene parishii, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-3.2°C
Dec at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
575mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–55DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Silene parishii is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name Parish's catchfly. It is endemic to southern California, where it is known from several of the local mountain ranges, including the San Bernardino, San Gabriel, and San Jacinto Mountains. It grows in rocky, forested habitat, sometimes in the alpine climates of the higher peaks. It is a perennial herb growing from a woody, branching caudex and taproot, sending up several decumbent or erect stems 10 to 40 centimetres tall. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Silene parishii", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Silene

Silene is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Containing between 500 and 900 species, it is the largest genus in the family. Common names include campion and catchfly. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Silene", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (452 mm of 580 mm) falls in November to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

580 mm in the median year at the habitat, 452 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 121 mm, driest month June at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 431 mm to 751 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 575 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 580 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 55 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 56).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.2 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -6.3 °C to -0.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.2 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -3.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, December, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 38 to 48% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Silene parishii through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -3.2 °C; 580 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 20–55RH 38–48%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 57 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 4–118 / 5–1110 / 8–1414 / 11–1819 / 16–2223 / 20–2726 / 23–3026 / 23–2923 / 20–2617 / 14–2011 / 8–157 / 4–10
Night °C-3 / -6–-1-3 / -6–-1-2 / -5–11 / -2–34 / 2–78 / 6–1112 / 9–1512 / 9–159 / 6–125 / 2–70 / -3–2-3 / -6–-1
Rain mm110 / 81–153121 / 84–16085 / 60–11540 / 27–5812 / 8–174 / 3–613 / 4–1717 / 5–2214 / 11–1628 / 20–3747 / 34–6489 / 64–113
DLI22 / 18–2427 / 24–2937 / 34–3946 / 44–4852 / 50–5355 / 54–5652 / 51–5247 / 46–4941 / 39–4333 / 29–3525 / 21–2620 / 17–22
RH %46 / 44–4848 / 46–5047 / 45–4944 / 43–4842 / 41–4638 / 37–4239 / 38–4141 / 39–4241 / 40–4242 / 41–4443 / 41–4544 / 42–46

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1010 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -18.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 57 grid cells holding the 265 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1114:1263 (34.275, -116.825). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 57 distinct grid cells holding 265 of the 265 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1114:1263 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_-116.875, lapse-corrected +1010 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2126 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCalifornia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker34.125, -116.78 · in the densest population, 342 records (99% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 346 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 265 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 62 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 36 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 81 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 346 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Silene parishii, photograph 1did not loadSilene parishii, photograph 2did not loadSilene parishii, photograph 3did not loadSilene parishii, photograph 4did not loadSilene parishii, photograph 5did not loadSilene parishii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Heuchera parishii Heuchera parishii Mill Creek alumroot Photo: CC BY, Trevor Van LoonLilium parryi Lilium parryi Lemon lily Photo: CC BY, Trevor Van LoonEriogonum kennedyi Eriogonum kennedyi Kennedy's buckwheat Photo: CC BY, Steve MatsonFritillaria pinetorum Fritillaria pinetorum Pinewoods fritillary Photo: CC BY, James M. MaleyMonardella linoides Monardella linoides Flaxleaf monardella Photo: CC0, author not statedRanunculus calandrinioides Ranunculus calandrinioides Ranunculaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, peganum from Small Dole, England

Other Silene 130 in the reference

Silene acaulis Silene acaulis Moss campion Photo: CC BY, Rowan FehrSilene aegyptiaca Silene aegyptiaca Egyptian Campion Photo: CC BY, Marios Thoma Silene altaica Caryophyllaceae Silene andryalifolia Silene andryalifolia Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Mehdi ChetibiSilene antirrhina Silene antirrhina Sleepy catchfly Photo: CC BY, Dustin SniderSilene argaea Silene argaea Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ghislain118 (AD)…Silene baccifera Silene baccifera Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSilene banksia Silene banksia Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Tatyana PetrenkoSilene boryi Silene boryi Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, frangpSilene borysthenica Silene borysthenica Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Анна МитрошенковаSilene bungei Silene bungei Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinSilene bupleuroides Silene bupleuroides Caryophyllaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 131 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Silene parishii var. latifolia; Silene parishii var. parishii; Silene parishii var. typica; Silene parishii var. viscida. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Caryophyllaceae
Described by
S.Watson
Native to
California
Wild records
346 in range · 62 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_-116.875, lapse-corrected +1010 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1010 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…