Melandrium grandiflorum (Franchet) Y. W. Tsui.

Herbs perennial. Stems diffuse, 40--50 cm, branched, pubescent. Leaves lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 3--6 cm × 4--15 mm, both surfaces slightly coarse, sparsely villous at veins, margin ciliate, midvein prominent, base suborbicular or broadly cuneate, apex acuminate. Dichasial cymes lax and broad; flowers erect, to 2.5 cm in diam. Pedicel 4--7 cm, slender, pubescent; bracts lanceolate, herbaceous, villous. Calyx pale green or red, tubular-clavate, ca. 20 × 4 mm, umbilicate at base, sparsely pubescent, veins not prominent; calyx teeth ovate-lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm, margin membranous, apex obtuse. Androgynophore 5--8 mm, glabrous. Petals red, 2--2.5 cm; claws narrowly oblanceolate, glabrous, auriculate; limbs obcordate, shallowly bifid, lobes suborbicular; coronal scales orbicular. Stamens exserted; filaments glabrous. Styles exserted. Capsule ovoid-globose, shorter than calyx. Seeds reniform. Fl. Jul--Aug.

This species is similar to Silene cardiopetala, but has narrower leaves and stiffer hairs on the calyx.

Silene grandiflora var. xerobatica W. W. Smith (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 11: 224. 1920) has a creeping habit, more crowded, linear leaves, shorter internodes in the inflorescence, fewer flowers, and shorter pedicels. It is perhaps best regarded as a separate species.

Silene grandiflora is cultivated as an ornamental.

* Scrub grasslands; ca. 2000 m. Yunnan.