Silene are weedy looking little plants with attractive oddly shaped flowers. Hawai'i has the most silene species of all the islands, and actually IIRC all but one of the non-Hawai'i species are extinct. S. struthioloides is fairly common on Mauna Kea just above Halepohaku, and becomes conspicuous in June when a crown of bright yellow-green flowers appears. S. lanceolata is highly endangered. The fairly rare s. hawaiiensis is found in various locations on Kilauea, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and across the Saddle.

OK, this June I found silene with all-green and white-and-maroon flowers growing side-by-side in the same colony above Halepohaku on Mauna Kea, so I need to study them more carefully. The flowers are rolled up in the morning, and open in the late afternoon.