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, i-i >^ inches 

 broad and borne erect on 

 slender pedicels in terminal 

 cymes, and despite the fact 

 that usually only a tew ot 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 

 I pistil with ; styles. The 

 hairy calyx is tubular and 5-lobed, three-quarters of an inch to 

 I inch long and enlarged as it persists on the truit. 



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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