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Despite its name, red campion's flowers are bright pink. Each has five petals, deeply notched so they can look like ten, with a small white frill at the centre. The plant flowers mainly from May to June, often continuing into autumn, and grows along woodland edges, hedgerows and shady banks. Its flowers are visited by bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies.
Red campion has separate male and female plants, which is what dioica, meaning "two houses," refers to. This flower is male: its stamens, carrying grey-green pollen, can be seen at the centre. Female flowers have five fine styles instead. Red campion also hybridises with white campion, producing flowers in paler shades of pink.
In parts of northern England, red campion was known as "mother-and-father-die," and children believed picking it would bring misfortune on their parents.
On former colliery land, red campion appears where developing woodland and hedgerows have built richer, shadier soils than the raw spoil left by mining, a sign of how far the ground has come.
Despite its name, red campion's flowers are bright pink. Each has five petals, deeply notched so they can look like ten, with a small white frill at the centre. The plant flowers mainly from May to June, often continuing into autumn, and grows along woodland edges, hedgerows and shady banks. Its flowers are visited by bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies.
Red campion has separate male and female plants, which is what dioica, meaning "two houses," refers to. This flower is male: its stamens, carrying grey-green pollen, can be seen at the centre. Female flowers have five fine styles instead. Red campion also hybridises with white campion, producing flowers in paler shades of pink.
In parts of northern England, red campion was known as "mother-and-father-die," and children believed picking it would bring misfortune on their parents.
On former colliery land, red campion appears where developing woodland and hedgerows have built richer, shadier soils than the raw spoil left by mining, a sign of how far the ground has come.