66 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



WHITE COCKLE (Lychnis alba Mill). 



Other English names: Evening Lychnis, White Campion. 



Other Latin names: Lychnis vespertina Sibth.; Silene pratensis 

 Godr. & Gren. 



Introduced from Europe; sparingly distributed in Ontario. 

 Biennial or short-lived perennial. Rootstock thick, sending up 

 a few short barren shoots and long branching flowering stems, 

 1 to 2 feet high. Whole plant rather viscous hairy but not so 

 much so as Night-flowering Catchfly. It resembles the latter 

 somewhat, but is wider branching, has many stems, the leaves 

 are larger, the flowers more numerous, pure white, and with 

 a more conspicuous crown of short white scales around the centre; 

 the male and female flowers are on separate plants. The fruit 

 capsule has 10 teeth at the top instead of 6, as in Night-flowering 

 Catchfly, and is much larger and more swollen. 



The seed (Plate 72, fig. 20) is pale gray, about as large as that 

 of Bladder Campion and Night-flowering Catchfly. It is rough- 

 ened by regular concentric rows of tubercles, which are farther 

 apart than those characteristic of allied species. The point of 

 attachment of the seed is usually depressed. 



Time of flowering : June ; seeds ripe in July. 

 Propagation: By seeds only. 



Occurrence: Grain crops and meadows. White Cockle 

 is not a common weed in Canada but has been introduced oc- 

 casionally with seeds imported from Europe. In the vicinity 

 of Guelph it is abundant and troublesome. 



Injury: A persistent weed that is exceedingly difficult to 

 eradicate, once it is established; a nuisance in all field crops. 

 The seeds are common in grass and clover seed from land where 

 the weed is plentiful. 



