1. Lychnis coronaria (L.) Desr. (mullein-pink, rose-campion)

Map 1466, Pl. 343 e, f

Plants perennial, often with a woody rootstock, densely pubescent throughout with woolly, grayish white hairs. Stems 40–100 cm long, erect or ascending from a sometimes spreading base, unbranched or more commonly branched above the midpoint. Leaves opposite, short-petiolate (basal leaves) or sessile and usually somewhat clasping at the base (stem leaves), lacking axillary clusters of leaves. Stipules absent. Leaf blades 5–10 cm long, oblanceolate to spatulate, not fleshy, rounded to tapered at the base, angled or short-tapered to a sharply pointed tip. Flowers in open terminal panicles, the stalks 5–10 cm long, erect or ascending at flowering and fruiting, the bracts paired and resembling small leaves. Epicalyx absent. Sepals 5, 12–15 mm long, fused basally into a tube 8–12 mm long, the tube 10-nerved, green, and herbaceous between the sepals, the lobes lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, shorter than the tube, tapered to a sharply pointed tip, not appearing hooded or awned, the margins thin and white. Petals 5, conspicuous and showy, 2.2–3.0 cm long, oblanceolate to broadly spatulate, tapered to a stalklike base, the expanded portion 1.0–1.5 cm long, notched at the tip, deep magenta or rarely white, with a pair of small, scalelike appendages on the upper surface at the base of the expanded portion. Stamens 10, the filaments fused into a short tube toward the base. Staminodes absent. Pistil with 1 locule, the ovary with a short stalk 1–2 mm long. Styles (4)5, each with a stigmatic area along the inner surface. Fruits capsules, 12–15 mm long, dehiscing apically by (4)5 spreading teeth. Seeds 20–30 or more, 1.0–1.5 mm wide, kidney-shaped, the surface tuberculate, grayish black, lacking wings or appendages. 2n=24. June–September.

Introduced, uncommon and sporadic (native of Europe, Asia; introduced in the eastern U.S. west to Wisconsin and Louisiana, also from Idaho and Utah west to Washington and California; Canada). Old homesites, fencerows, and roadsides.

This species was first reported for the state by Dunn (1982) from a collection made in 1974 in Stone County. Lychnis coronaria is a popular garden plant with the striking combination of magenta flowers and grayish white, densely woolly foliage.