Silene noctiflora L., present in the flora of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbia)

Abstract

The genus Silene (family Caryophyllaceae) comprises more than 700 species and it is one of the larger genera of the World’s flora. Studying the flora of the plain part of Kosovo and Metohija, in the village of Gračanica, on the eastern rim of the Kosovo basin (approximately 10 km to the south of Priština), near the Gračanka stream, we identified a weed and ruderal species, Silene noctiflora. The part of the stream bank is urbanised and turned into a quay. The quay is regularly maintained implying that the banks are regularly weeded and the riverbeds are cleaned as the Typha latifolia species rapidly grows; it may be the reason why this species was not immediately detected and appropriately identified. Except for the afore mentioned locality, the species was also reported on the neglected arable fields and tilths, around the unkempt orchards, along the new tarmac road between Gračanica and Laplje Selo, on the locality called Labura. Silene noctiflora is not mentioned for the region of Kosovo and Metohija in the new and revised edition of the book Flora of Serbia 2.