Silene armeria (Sweet William catchfly, "Mushitorinadeshiko")

Japanese name: ムシトリナデシコ（虫取撫子）
Scientific name: Silene armeria

[Overview]
An annual or biennial 20–50 cm tall, found in wastelands, riverbeds and similar places.
A naturalized plant, widely found from Hokkaido to Kyushu.
The stems and leaves are covered with a white powder, so the whole plant looks grayish green.
The stem is erect and branches in the upper part, with a sticky area about 5–15 mm long just below the 2–3 nodes nearest the inflorescence.
Leaves are simple and opposite, elliptic to long ovate, 1.5–5 cm long and 0.5–2 cm wide, with the base clasping the stem.
Basal leaves are also present, but they have withered by flowering time.
Corymbs at the tips of the stems and branches bear many flowers.
The flowers are 5-petaled, a little over 1 cm across, and reddish purple, with the lower part enclosed in the calyx.
The petals open flat, with tips shallowly 2-lobed and 2 scales at the base.
The reddish calyx tube is 1.2–1.5 cm long.
There are 10 stamens.
The fruit is a capsule whose upper part splits radially into 6 parts to release fine seeds.

[History]
It is thought to have been introduced as an ornamental at the end of the Edo shogunate (1929) and to have gradually escaped from cultivation.

[Notes]
The Japanese name compares it to an insect-eating plant that secretes sticky fluid, but it is not a carnivorous plant.