Plants perennial; taproot thick; caudex erect, branched, thick and woody, producing tufts of leaves. Stems erect, branched distally, with 2-4 pairs of reduced leaves, 15-50 cm; flowering shoots usually subscapose, coarsely pubescent with hairs colorless, septate, and long, viscid-glandular, especially distally. Leaves mostly basal; basal long-petiolate, blade oblanceolate to elliptic, 6-15 cm × 10-30 mm, narrowed to base, not fleshy; cauline few, sessile, reduced distally, blade lanceolate, 0.8-4 cm × 3-8 mm, not fleshy. Inflorescences thyrsate, subscapose, rarely simple, (3-)5-12(rarely more)-flowered, open, bracteate, bracteolate, densely pubescent, glandular, viscid; alternate branches often suppressed or developing unevenly; proximal nodes often with single flower; bracts and bracteoles resembling stem leaves but much reduced. Pedicels 4-2 times length of calyx. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, veins parallel, those of lobes broadened distally, tubular in flower, 10-13 × 2.5-4 mm, campanulate-ovate in fruit, broadest near middle and contracted towards mouth, not contracted proximally, 12-18 × 5-8 mm, with pale commissures, lobes 5, erect, narrowly lanceolate, 4-6 mm, margins narrow, membranous proximally, apex blunt, with glandular hairs; petals 11/ 2-2 times longer than calyx tube; corolla pink, clawed, claw equaling calyx tube, limb obovate, deeply 2-lobed, 5-10 mm, appendages 2, linear, ca. 1.5 mm; stamens exserted, shorter than petals; styles 3-5, included in calyx, ± equaling calyx or corolla. Capsules conic to ellipsoid, equaling calyx lobes, opening by 6-10 recurved teeth; carpophore 1-2 mm. Seeds dark brown, reniform, 1-1.5 mm, prominently papillate; papillae larger around margins. 2n = 48.

Flowering summer. Scrubby grasslands and openings in woodland and coniferous forests; 1100-2300 m; Calif., Nev., Oreg.

Silene nuda may be confused with the other scapose species, S. scaposa, but S. nuda has larger, more conspicuous petals that are one and one-half to two times as long as the calyx tube. It is found in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades. The Nevada populations tend to grow in drier situations and on saline flats.