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[rakeandbake]

 I used to grow Silene capensis. It is one of my favorite plants for growing outdoors in my hardiness zone of 6a. I always collected my seeds and replanted them next year or give them to the community. One day a few years ago I was taking a walk and stumbled across a plant that resembled Silene capensis. I could tell visually it had to be closely related. After some research I discover that is was Silene latifolia and it grows native in my area. My first thought was hybridization. I wondered if I could cross the two silene species and make capensis more cold tolerant to latifolias region. I never had time to take on this project. I later researched latifolia a bit more in depth. An online search mentions that the Ojibwa tribe of the U S. used latifolia medicinally as a sedative and to treat insomnia. Silene capensis have been used by the Xhosa and Zulu peoples in Africa to induce vivid and prophetic dreams. I now wonder if Silene capensis isn't as special as the internet makes it out to be? What are the chances latifolia is just as good and already tolerant to to my region? Even though it sounds like a neat project I suspect my hybrid idea doesnt make much sense. Does anyone have any knowledge on silene? Or opinions on the possible hybridization amongst the Silene genus?

[Shamichael]

Very interesting.  I know s. latifolia only as a weed, and I don't recall seeing it for a number of years. I find it tragic that so much of indigenous wisdom from all over the world has been destroyed intentionally.
I will keep a look out for this plant and perhaps attempt to work with it for personal knowledge that I can report back on.

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[Sunshine]

I'd wager that the local cold-tolerant species is non-active, just for the simple fact that there's no record of their usage in that way. Plants often use alkaloids as defense mechanisms. It's possible that they have the same alkaloids, different less-active ones, or none at all. Its possible they had actives once upon a time but lost them due to lack of needing them in cold environments. It's really anyone's guess. I'd bet they CAN be crossed since their growth style is so similar. They just seem compatible. Interspecific breeding is relatively common, and inter-genus crossing isn't uncommon.

Only one way to find out! I may give it a shot myself once my capensis seeds get here. I'll be sending some to you as well as per our previous discussions. I'm excited to see what we find.

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[rakeandbake]

I did find some references to indigenous peoples of the Great lakes region using latifolia for insomnia and as a sedative. So there is some mention of its usage? Obviously it doesn't make it true because I read it online though. Also there doesn't appear to be any alkaloids present sunshine. It is supposedly the saponins that create the visionary and prophetic dreams.  The main issue I see with this experiment is how would we know if the cross is truly a cross? Maybe the plant we attempted to pollinate had pollinated itself? The plants look so similar that i don't think we could distinguish the results without some sort of genetic proof that we don't have access to. That's much of the reason I have never made this attempt. And I agree completely shamichael! It really sucks that indigenous peoples knowledge wasn't somehow preserved better. For all we know there are many actives nearby that never made it into the literature.

[Greentoe]

So I'm thinking part of what's hard to assess about this is does anyone know what exactly are the active compounds in silene capensis? Some places say saponins and if that's the case silene latifolia is also known to be high in saponins so may also be of use? I saw that native Americans used it but didn't specify if they used the root or if they used it for dreaming. Without knowledge of what exactly you're hoping to find in there in the first place the whole thing is a little sketchy.

As far as cross breeding I'd imagine you'd want to manually pollinate then cover the flower to avoid being pollinated from other plants. Don't know if it'd work but couldn't hurt to try.

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