PINK FAMILY CARYOPHYLLACEAE 
FIRE PINK 
Silene virginica L. 
The Fire Pink is found in dry open woods and forest borders 
from Minnesota to Missouri and eastward to Georgia and 
New York. It blooms from May to September but is usually 
most abundant in June and 
July. 
It is a perennial with a 
slender stem, 1-2 feet high, 
that branches near the upper 
end and is covered with very 
short glandular hairs that 
make it somewhat sticky. 
The opposite leaves are rather 
thin; the lower are somewhat 
spoon shaped and have winged 
petioles, whereas the upper 
leaves are oblong-lanceolate 
and sessile. 
Because of its brilliant 
crimson flowers, 1-1% inches 
broad and borne erect on 
slender pedicels in terminal 
cymes, and despite the fact 
that usually only a few of these 
are open at one time, the Fire 
Pink is a beautiful and con- 
spicuous plant. Each of the 5 
long and 2-toothed petals has a 
scalelike crown. As in all Sil- 
enes there are 10 stamens and 
1 pistil with 5 styles. The 
hairy calyx is tubular and 5-lobed, three-quarters of an inch to 
1 inch long and enlarged as it persists on the fruit. 
The fruit is a many-seeded pod which opens by 6 teeth at 
the summit. The various species of Silene have no efficient 
means of scattering these spiny or tuberculed seeds, but produce 
them in large numbers and rely on the chance that a few out of 
several hundred will find suitable places in which to grow. 
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