Unique plants from Romania (Part 3)

Another flower from the Dianthus family (suprataxon: Caryophyllaceae [verbatim]), Dianthus spiculifolius (Romanian: Garofiţa albă de stânci or Barba ungurului, English: rocks white carnation or Beard of the Hungarian) is an elegant plant that grows on limestone rocks, in upland up to the alpine areas. It grows as a bush, with many stems, the flowers are white or pale pink. The leaves are linear, up to 2-3 mm thin and the petals are ragged. It blooms in May-July and has an extraordinary, exquisite perfume.


Image from MyNature, © Beniamin Boceanu
Listed as Dianthus spiculifolius Schur. (1866), this splendid flower is a rare, endemic species who grows in a few restricted areas in the Romanian Carpathians Mountains.



Images from Alpinet, © Daniel Morar, Csaba Iakob