Sister to them is S. cappadocica Boiss. & Heldr., which belongs to the same section Spergulifoliae Boiss. Widely distributed species in Southern Europe, but rare in Ukraine S. viridiflora L. has sister relationship to S. nutans L.; S. italica (L.) Pers. and S. nemoralis Waldst. & Kit. are also related to them. These four species belong to Silene sect. Siphonomorpha Otth. Ukrainian local endemic species S. sytnikii forms a single clade with Balkanian S. frivaldszkyana Hampe. Rare species S. cretacea is, surprisingly, sister to a group of taxa with small unisexual flowers from the sect. Otites (Adans.) Otth, but with low posterior probability.