These little flowers were brought over as cottage-garden staples, but they liked it here well enough to adopt it as their new home. They’re not unusual, but still just uncommon enough that running across one in a vacant lot is an unexpected delight. They seem to prefer poor soil, and up on Presque Isle can be found in great numbers just behind the dunes. The one above was blooming in the Seldom Seen Greenway in the middle of June.
A very rare white form is unknown in the earlier literature, but found here once in a while:
The pink stamens are a nice decorative touch. Although none of the older floras we consulted mentioned a white form, the Web-based Flora of North America (under Dianthus armeria subspecies armeria) does: “petals reddish with white dots (rarely all white).”
Gray describes the genus and the species:
DIANTHUS L. PINK, CARNATION
Calyx cylindrical, nerved or striate, 5-toothed,
subtended by 2 or more imbricated bractlets. Stamens
10. Styles 2. Pod 1-celled, 4-valved at the apex.
Seeds flattish on the back; embryo scarcely curved.
—Ornamental plants, of well-known aspect and value in
cultivation. (Name from Dios, of Jupiter,
and anthos, flower, i.e. Jove’s own flower.)
D. ARMERIA L. (DEPTFORD P.) Annual; flowers clustered; bractlets of the calyx and bracts lance-awl-form, herbaceous, downy, as long as the tube; leaves linear, hairy; petals small, rose-color with white dots, crenate. Fields, etc., Mass, to Va., w. to s. Ont., Mich., and Ia. July. (Adv. from Eu.)
