Silene flos-cuculi
species of plant

Silene flos-cuculi (syn. Lychnis flos-cuculi), the ragged-robin, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Eurasia and Siberia and has been introduced to North America.
Description
Silene flos-cuculi forms a rosette of low growing foliage with numerous stems 30 to 90 centimetres (12 to 35+1⁄2 inches) tall. The stems rise above the foliage and branch near the top of the stem. The leaves are paired, with the lower leaves spoon-shaped and stalked. The middle and upper leaves are linear-lanceolate with pointed apexes. All of the leaves are untoothed. The stems have barbed hairs pointing downward and these hairs make the plant rough to the touch.
Blooming from May to August (and occasionally later), the pink flowers are 3 to 4 cm (1.2 to 1.6 in) wide.
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This entry incorporates text from “Silene flos-cuculi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.