Lychnis chalcedonica L. (1753)

This species is also cultivated in Chinese gardens.

Shortly rhizomatous plant, 35-75 cm. Stem leaves ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 2-10 cm x 1-5 cm. Inflorescence umbelliform-capitate, flowers flame red, numerous, large, 1-3 cm diam. V - early spring to late autumn, in St. Petersburg April-October. Fl - June-July. Fr - August. P - by seed, flowering the year after sowing. Recommended for planting in sunny places on well-drained soil. In cultivation since the XVI century. Z 4.

Herbs perennial, 50--100 cm tall, hispid with multicellular eglandular hairs. Stems simple or rarely branched; sterile, dwarf, axillary shoots from short rhizomes present. Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 5--12 × 2--5 cm, both surfaces sparsely pilose. Inflorescence a terminal, dense, corymblike, 10--50-flowered dichasium. Pedicel much shorter than calyx, slender; bracts lanceolate, small, herbaceous. Flowers 1.5--2 cm in diam. Calyx tubular or tubular-clavate, 1.2--1.5(--1.7) × ca. 3 mm, pilose at veins; teeth triangular-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm. Petal limb orange-red, broadly obovate, 7--9 mm, bifid to 1/3; lobes obovate, each with a subulate lateral tooth; claw oblanceolate, base ciliate; coronal scales linear, apex acute. Stamens slightly exserted. Androgynophore 4--6 mm. Capsule ovoid, 8--10 mm. Seeds dark red-brown, triangular-reniform, ca. 1 mm, sharply pointed tuberculate. Fl. summer--autumn, fr. autumn. 2n = 24, 48.

European part of the FSU (central and western regions), Siberia (southern and western regions), Central Asia (Kazakstan, Tien Shan) and Mongolia. Moist forest meadows, shrubs, ravines, edges.

Gansu, Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia].

Silene chalcedonica (Linnaeus) E. H. L. Krause.