Gypsophila elegans

Gypsophila elegans Bieb. (W and SW-As.) – A very rare and ephemeral escape from cultivation. First collected in 1883 near a cemetery in Soumagne and in 1886 in a road verge near Tournai. In the 20th century also recorded at a cemetery in Verviers. At present sometimes seen as a casual garden escape or throw-out, for instance in 2010 at the former railway station of Trazegnies (Charleroi) and in 2013 on worked-up, sandy soil by the Albertkanaal in Grobbendonk.

Gypsophila elegans is also sometimes sown in wild flower seed mixtures.

Selected literature:


Lambinon J. (1995) Notes taxonomiques, nomenclaturales et chorologiques relatives à la quatrième édition de la « Nouvelle Flore » de la Belgique et des régions voisines. 3. Données nouvelles sur des plantes adventices ou subspontanées en Belgique. Dumortiera 60: 1-36.

Walter E. (1980) Pflanzen, von denen in der mitteleuropaischen literatur selten oder gar keine Abbildungen zu finden sind: 14. Gypsophila elegans Bieb. in einem bürgenlandischen Bauerngarten. Gött. Flor. Rundbr. 14(1): 15-17.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith