Biology
provided by Arkive
This biennial species flowers in July and August, and is an incredibly prolific seed producer. Each plant can shed up to 400 seeds, although it is thought to need open ground for these to germinate successfully. Once established, the plant can cope with competition from taller species. Seeds disperse in late summer and a rosette of leaves grows the following year. The plant finally flowers the year after that.
Conservation
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The Deptford pink is listed under the UK Biodiversity Action Plans and included in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme. It is also part of Plantlife's 'Back from the Brink' project.
The most urgent tasks to preserve this plant are to maintain its current range and manage viable populations on all the present sites. Plantlife and English Nature's report on Deptford pink for the year 2000 recommended active management of the surviving sites to prevent over-grazing by rabbits and shading out by other plants. Seed has been collected and stored at the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place, part of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This seed may be used for ex-situ propagation and a reintroduction programme if this becomes necessary.
New sites are being discovered each year but all are vulnerable to development or accidental damage. There seems to be a buried seed bank which, following disturbance, produces new plants. Habitat restoration projects may stimulate this seed bank to germinate but it is easy to become complacent. The plant is still very uncommon and could still be lost as a British species.
It is also important that the Deptford pink's plight is publicised, along with many other farmland plants in danger of disappearing through intensive agricultural practice. These other plants include interrupted brome, cornflower and purple ramping fumitory.
Description
provided by Arkive
The Deptford pink is an upright plant, not unlike its garden relative Sweet-William in appearance. The flowers are stalkless and a rosy-red colour, about one centimetre in diameter. The leaf rosette at the base of the plant is green, a feature that distinguishes it from some other members of the pink family, which have grey-green leaves.
The plant was given its English name by the 17th century herbalist Thomas Johnson in a celebrated case of mistaken identity. In fact, what Johnson found and described in 1633 was probably maiden pink Dianthus deltoides. As the first name given to a plant is generally the one botanists stick to, the East End of London is 'famous' for a species that has not grown there in historical times, and possibly not at all.
Habitat
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Deptford pink is a plant of disturbed ground such as tracks, field edges and hedgerows, and dry pasture. It prefers light, dry, sandy soil with a high pH, indicating alkaline conditions. However, it has been found growing at Woodwalton Fen in Cambridgeshire, on quite acid, peaty soil.
Range
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This species is fairly common across most of western and central Europe. However, in the UK it is rare and declining faster than almost any other British plant. Once widespread, by 1970 it was reduced to 34 known sites and this figure was down to 15 sites by 1998. These sites are mostly in the south-east of England. The latest survey results revealed that at the end of the 1990s, the plant was found on 34 sites in England and Wales, although at most sites numbers were small.
Status
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Classified as Vulnerable in the UK. Protected in England and Wales under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, as amended.
Threats
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The main factors in the disappearance of the Deptford pink are the loss of pasture and the destruction of hedgerows. Many of the meadows where it formerly grew have been converted to arable or turned into building land. The reduction in grazing has also contributed to the scarcity of this attractive plant.
Comprehensive Description
provided by Smithsonian Contributions to Botany
Dianthus armeria L
Dianthus armeria L., Sp. Pl. 410, 1753.
This was reported by Neal in Gardens of Hawaii (1948:346) but as an annual. Fernald (1950:636) also refers to it as an annual or biennial, and so it generally behaves in the eastern United States. However, the following collections appear more like a perennial, branching profusely from a root crown and deep tap root.
SPECIMENS SEEN.—Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii I.: Kukaiau Ranch, 5000 ft [1500m], Rubtzoff 2622 (US); N. W. slope of Mauna Kea, Puu Makahalau, 4000 ft [1200 m], Kawasaki in 1964 (BISH). The Kawasaki specimen is also heavy and almost woody at base, though most of it is broken off.
- bibliographic citation
- Fosberg, F. Raymond and Sachet, Marie-Hélène. 1975. "Polynesian Plant Studies 1-5." Smithsonian Contributions to Botany. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.21
Dianthus armeria
provided by wikipedia EN
Dianthus armeria, the Deptford pink or grass pink,[1] is a species of Dianthus ("pink") native to most of Europe, from Portugal north to southern Scotland and southern Finland, and east to Ukraine and the Caucasus.[2][3][4] It is naturalised in North America.[1]
Description
Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria) in flower
Dianthus armeria is an annual or biennial plant which grows to about 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) tall and has a very slender appearance. It has widely spaced, paired leaves, and above these it branches rather sparingly.[5] At the ends of the stems there are short-stalked or stalkless clusters of deep-pink flowers that are surrounded by erect, hairy, leaf-like bracts. These can also be located laterally. Each flower is 8 to 13 millimetres (0.31 to 0.51 in) in diameter and has 5 lanceolate petals, each with irregular serrated edges and small white spotting on the upper surface.[6] The leaves are hairy, dark green in colour and slim in shape.[7]
Distribution
Dianthus armeria is native to Europe, where it is widespread as far north as 60°N in Scandinavia, extending eastwards to Armenia and the Caucasus, and as far south as Spain and Sicily. It has been introduced to North America, where it is now naturalised and is widespread.[6] In Britain it is now extirpated as a native species from Scotland and is known from a few dozen sites in England and 4-5 sites in Wales, including a nature reserve in Flintshire, a quarry near Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf, near a reservoir in the vicinity of Port Talbot and along a farm track on a site near Llanelli.[8]
Habitat and ecology
Dianthus armeria is a species of open and periodically disturbed sites. It is normally an annual but can be biennial or a short-lived perennial. New leaf rosettes form at the base of old plants from buds located on their roots, demonstrating that this species is in fact a short-lived perennial and has a life-span of less than two and a half years.[6] It flowers from July to September.[7] Its flowers are scentless and do not appear to be insect pollinated often, with self-pollination the norm. Each plant gradually releases around 400 seeds from their pods; however, some plants may hold a small fraction of the seeds they produce over winter.[6] It closes its blooms in the late afternoons.[7]
Cultivation and uses
Seeds of
Dianthus armeria
It is widely grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. Populations have been introduced to and have become naturalised in New Zealand and much of North America.[9]
Name
The name Deptford pink was coined in the 17th century by naturalist Thomas Johnson, who described a pink flower growing in Deptford in South-East London. However, it is very likely that Johnson was actually describing the related maiden pink, and it is unlikely that this species has grown in the area it is named after since the city of London was built.[10]
References
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Dianthus armeria: Brief Summary
provided by wikipedia EN
Dianthus armeria, the Deptford pink or grass pink, is a species of Dianthus ("pink") native to most of Europe, from Portugal north to southern Scotland and southern Finland, and east to Ukraine and the Caucasus. It is naturalised in North America.
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- cc-by-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Wikipedia authors and editors
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