A downy, much-branched plant with white, sweet-scented flowers.

1" wide; petals 5, deeply notched; female flower with 5 curved styles protruding from center and an inflated calyx with 20 veins and 5 sharp teeth; male flower with a slender, 10-veined calyx and 10 stamens.

1 1/2- 4" long, opposite, hairy, ovate or lanceolate.

Vase-shaped, many-seeded capsule.

1-3'.

July-October.

Fields, roadsides, and waste places.

This European introduction, which has male and female flowers on separate plants, blooms at night and attracts moths that pollinate the flowers. Until recently it was was known as lychnis alba. It is quite similar to Night-flowering Catchfly, another introduced species, which has sticky stems and white flowers with only three styles. Also very similar is the quite rare Red Campion, which has pink flowers.