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Maiden Pink

Maiden Pink

Dianthus deltoides

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How common: Common

Alien species

Maiden Pink is a low, long‑lived wildflower that forms loose mats with a few upright flowering stems. It carries bright pink to purple‑red five‑petaled flowers, sometimes pale pink or white. You can meet it on dry, open ground such as meadows, heaths and roadside banks across much of Europe and parts of Asia, and it is also grown in gardens.

Did you know?

  • Classed as Near Threatened (NT) in Finland.
  • The name Dianthus means “flower of the gods”, while deltoides refers to a small triangle.

About the species

Identification

A 10–30 cm perennial forming loose mats: non‑flowering shoots run along the ground, while flowering stems are upright, green to blue‑green and slightly hairy. Leaves grow in pairs, very narrow and firm, 1–3 cm long and 1–2 mm wide. Flowers are single or a few per stem on long stalks; five petals, purplish pink to deep magenta, sometimes pale pink or white, with slightly toothed tips and often tiny whitish speckles. The fruit is a slim dry capsule that opens in four parts. Look‑alikes: Deptford Pink has much deeper‑cut petal tips and is taller; Fringed Pink has larger, strongly fringed petals and a strong scent. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Dry, sunny, open places: meadows and grasslands, stony or sandy slopes, road verges and field edges; also grown in gardens and can spread from plantings. Common in southern and central Finland, rarer further north, absent from Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6159699507

Text: Pinkka: Kumpulan kasvitieteellisen puutarhan maantieteellinen osasto - Suomi, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38150

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Kulttuuriympäristöt: kedot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38150

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38150

Text: Pinkka: IPS-178 Suomen uhanalaiset kasvit - Dactylorhiza-Gypsophila. Lähteet: Kurtto, A. 2024: Caryophyllaceae. Retkeilykasvio 5. p. Käsikirjoitus., CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38150

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketoneilikka

See also