Herb, annual, becoming increasingly glandular upwards. Stems ± erect, diffusely branched, 15–60 cm high. Leaves ovate-spathulate to elliptic, 20–60 mm long, 10–40 mm wide, glabrous to sparsely glandular-ciliate above; basal leaves with petioles to 20 mm long; cauline leaves sessile. Inflorescence lax, few-flowered; bracts herbaceous. Pedicels 0.25–1.25 times calyx length. Calyx cylindrical, c. 15 mm long, 10-veined, rather densely glandular-pubescent; calyx lobes narrowly triangular, acute. Petal limb c. 10 mm long, pink, entire. Styles 3. Capsule 7–9 mm long, opening by 6 teeth; carpophore 9–10 mm long, puberulent. Seeds ± reniform, 1.5–1.75 mm diam., dark brown, bluntly tuberculate; dorsal edge flat to ± grooved, but not winged.
Grows in disturbed areas. In Victoria, Silene pseudoatocion is weakly naturalised on low dunes at Port Fairy where escaped from a coastal garden, and it was also collected from near Boneo on the Mornington Peninsula; at both sites establishing on calcium-rich sands (N. Walsh, VICFLORA-Flora of Victoria, accessed October 2019).
Grown as a hardy coastal ornamental garden plant (N. Walsh, VICFLORA-Flora of Victoria, accessed October 2019).
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