Deptford pink (Dianthus armeria)

Synonyms: Dianthus armeria L. subsp. armeria

Common Names: Mountain pink, grass pink, Deptford's pink

Description: Considered endangered in the UK and introducted to the United States as an ornamental for gardens.

Habit: Erect, herbaceous annual or biennial plant growing 8-24 inches tall, delicate.

Leaves: Up to 3 inches long and 1/8 inch wide, opposite, sessile, linear, pubescent, entire, acute to obtuse.

Stems: Green, slender, and stiff, mostly hairless except at the leaf nodes and near the flowers.

Flowers: Pink in color, 5-parted, 1/2 inches wide, toothed petals with white spots; hairy, inflorescence with 3-5 flowers in a tight, branched cluster (cyme); blooms July-August.

Fruit and seeds: Each seed is orbicular or rein form and flattened with small bumps across the surface.

Habitat: Native to Europe. Found in disturbed sites such as open woods, roadsides, railroads, waste ground, pastures, and fields.

Reproduction: Spreads by seed. The root system consists of a slender taproot.

Similar species: Maiden pink (Dianthus deltoides)

Monitoring and rapid response: Manual hand-pulling.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Flora of Wisconsin: Consortium of Wisconsin Herbaria, Invasive Plant Atlas of the U.S., Minnesota Wildflowers, and Missouri Plants.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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