Dianthus Dianthus, L.

52. D. plumarius L. View in CoL , Sp. Pl. 411 (1753).

A more or less glaucous perennial up to 40 cm; flowering stems with 1—4(—10) pairs of leaves. Leaves c. 1 mm wide, narrowed only in the upper part, acute or subacute. Flowers 1 (rarely more, except in cultivars), fragrant. Epicalyx-scales (2-)4(-6), obovate, often almost truncate, shortly apiculate, c. i as long as calyx. Calyx 1 7-3 0x4-6 mm, almost cylindrical, green or slightly purple; teeth lanceolate to ovate, obtuse or apiculate; margin broadly scarious. Petal-limb 12-18 mm, divided to about the middle into narrow lobes, white or bright pink, usually bearded. • Calcareous mountains o f E.C. Europe, from the Italian Alps to N.E. Hungary and the Tatra. Au Cz H u It Po.

Widely cultivated and more or less naturalized in much of Europe. Many hybrids between this and D. gratianopolitanus are grown in gardens. A number of isolated and slightly different populations have been given specific rank. The most distinct of these are D. hungaricus Pers. , Syn. Pl. 1: 494 (1805), with broadly scarious epicalyx-scales and violet filaments (Tatra), and D. lumnitzeri Wiesb. , Bot. Centr. 26: 85 (1886), with a narrow, rather attenuate calyx like that of 53, but other characters as in 52 (from E. Austria (Hainburger Berge) to N.E. Hungary (Biikk Hegyseg)).