Dianthus

Carnation Dianthus caryophyllus, copyright Roula30.

Belongs within: Caryophyllaceae.

Dianthus, pinks and carnations, are a group of herbaceous plants native to Eurasia, Africa and North America that bear often pink flowers with divided edges to the petals. Several species are grown as ornamentals such as the carnation D. caryophyllus and garden pink D. plumarius.

Characters (from R. K. Rabeler & R. L. Hartman): Herbs, usually perennial (rarely annual or biennial), sometimes mat-forming. Taproots stout, rhizomes (when present) slender or stout. Stems erect or ascending, simple or branched, terete or angled. Leaves connate proximally into sheath, petiolate (basal leaves) or sessile; blade 1-veined, linear or oblong to ovate, apex acute. Inflorescences terminal, open cymes, dense bracteate clusters or heads, or flowers solitary; bracts paired, herbaceous to scarious, or absent; involucel bracteoles 1-3 pairs, herbaceous or scarious. Pedicels erect in fruit. Flowers: sepals connate proximally into tube, 10-22 mm, tube green or reddish, 20-60-veined, ± cylindric, terete, commissures between sepals absent, lobes green or reddish, 3-8-veined, triangular to lanceolate, shorter than tube, margins white or reddish, mostly scarious, apex acute or obtuse; petals often pink or red, sometimes white or purple, sometimes spotted or with darker center, clawed, auricles absent, coronal appendages absent, blade apex dentate or fimbriate to 1/2 of length; nectaries at filament bases; stamens 10, adnate with petals to carpophore; filaments distinct; staminodes absent; ovary 1-locular; styles 2, filiform, 0.7-6 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 2, linear along adaxial surface of styles, papillate (30×). Capsules ovoid to cylindric, opening by 4 teeth; carpophore present. Seeds 40-100+, blackish brown, shield-shaped, dorsiventrally compressed, papillose-striate to papillate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent; embryo central, straight. x = 15.

<==Dianthus
    |--D. allwoodii WFA00
    |--D. alpinus WFA00
    |--D. armeria D37
    |--D. barbatus C06
    |--D. bisignoni M55
    |--D. callizonus H09
    |--D. carthusianorum [incl. D. atrorubens] C55
    |--D. caryophyllus Linnaeus 1753 CD07
    |--D. catalaunicus C74
    |--D. deltoides D37
    |--D. fruticosus S98
    |    |--D. f. ssp. fruticosus S98
    |    |--D. f. ssp. amorginus S98
    |    `--D. f. ssp. occidentalis Y98
    |--D. glacialis H09
    |    |--D. g. ssp. glacialis H09
    |    `--D. g. ssp. gelidus H09
    |--D. henteri H09
    |--D. pinifolius KB96
    |    |--D. p. ssp. pinifolius KB96
    |    `--D. p. ssp. lilacinus KB96
    |--D. plumarius WFA00
    |--D. sylvestris S96
    `--D. tenuifolius H09

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 1. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[CD07] Cantino, P. D., J. A. Doyle, S. W. Graham, W. S. Judd, R. G. Olmstead, D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis & M. J. Donoghue. 2007. Towards a phylogenetic nomenclature of Tracheophyta. Taxon 56 (3): E1–E44.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[C74] Coineau, Y. 1974. Éléments pour une monographie morphologique, écologique et biologique des Caeculidae (Acariens). Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, nouvelle série, Série A, Zoologie 81: 1–299, 24 pls.

[D37] Dobzhansky, T. 1937. Genetics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press: New York.

[H09] Heltmann, H. 2009. Der Königstein (Piatra Craiului), die Perle der Burzenländer Gebirge. Mauritiana 20 (3): 515–527.

[KB96] Konstantinou, M., & D. Babalonas. 1996. Metal uptake by Caryophyllaceae species from metalliferous soils in northern Greece. Plant Systematics and Evolution 203: 1–10.

[M55] Mertens, R. 1955. Die Mauereidechsen der Liparischen Inseln, gesammelt von Dr. Antonino Trischitta. Senckenbergiana Biologica 36 (1–2): 25–40.

[S98] Salmeri, C. 1998. Allium brulloi (Alliaceae), a new species from Astypalea (Aegean Islands, Greece). Willdenowia 28: 69–76.

[S96] Schatz, H. 1996. Oribatid mites (Oribatida) in alpine dry meadows (Austria, central Alps). In: Mitchell, R., D. J. Horn, G. R. Needham & W. C. Welbourn (eds) Acarology IX vol. 1. Proceedings pp. 633–635. Ohio Biological Survey: Columbus (Ohio).

[WFA00] Wurr, D. C. E., J. R. Fellows & L. Andrews. 2000. The effects of temperature and daylength on flower initiation and development in Dianthus allwoodii and Dianthus alpinus. Scientia Horticulturae 86: 57–70.

[Y98] Yannitsaros, A. 1998. Additions to the flora of Kithira (Greece) I. Willdenowia 28: 77–94.

Last updated: 4 August 2020.