Silene stenophylla

Silene stenophylla is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. Commonly called narrow-leafed campion, it is a species in the genus Silene. It grows in the Arctic tundra of far eastern Siberia and the mountains of northern Japan. Frozen samples, estimated via radiocarbon dating to be around 32,000 years old, were discovered in the same area as current living specimens, and in 2012, a team of scientists successfully regenerated a plant from the samples. Silene stenophylla grows in the Arctic tundra of far eastern Siberia and the mountains of northern Japan. It is typically tall, has narrow leaves, and a large calyx. It blooms during the summer and has incised petals that are lilac, light pink, or white in color. It is a perennial that grows on stony cliffs and sandy shores. S. stenophylla is one of a few Beringian plant species that did not establish itself in North America. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek stenos (narrow) and phyllon (leaf) to give "narrow-leaved". A team of scientists from Russia, Hungary and the United States recovered frozen Silene stenophylla seeds and remains from the Pleistocene in 2007, while investigating about 70 ancient ground squirrel (genera Urocitellus and Geomys ssp) hibernation burrows or caches, hidden in permanently frozen loess-ice deposits located at Duvanny Yar, on the right bank of the lower Kolyma River in Sakha Republic, northeastern Siberia, in the plant's present-day range. Using radiocarbon dating, the age of the seeds was estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 years, dating the seeds to the Pleistocene epoch. The embryos were damaged, possibly by the animals' activity. The research team presented their findings at the Botany & Plant Biology conference in Chicago, Illinois in 2007. The burrows were found below the present-day surface. Usually the rodents would eat the food in their larders, but in this case a flood or other weather event buried the whole area. Since the rodents had placed the larders at the level of the permafrost, the material froze almost immediately, and did not thaw out at any time since.