The Pink Flame of Riverbeds

Habit: Perennial herb reaching up to 150 cm in height. Stems: Cylindrical, erect, branched, densely leafy and covered with fine pubescence. Leaves: Alternate, sessile and linear; rigid, pointed and green on both surfaces. Unlike the similar C. angustifolium, they lack conspicuous lateral veins and have margins slightly turned upward. Flowers: Arranged in erect racemes mixed with the apical leaves. Each flower, 2–3 cm in diameter, is borne on a long peduncle and has four spreading wine-red sepals and four unequal pink petals. Fruits: Long narrow loculicidal capsules releasing numerous seeds with a tuft of white hairs that allows long-distance wind dispersal. Flowering: July–September.

Chorological type: South-European orophyte. Distribution in Italy: Present in much of the national territory, except Sardinia, Puglia and Campania. Habitat: A pioneer heliophilous species colonising loose, nutrient-poor soils such as slopes, screes, debris fields and especially the beds of mountain rivers, mainly on calcareous substrata, from sea level to 1700 m above sea level.

Generic name (Chamaenerion): Composed of the Greek terms khamai, “low” or “on the ground”, and Nerium, “oleander”, because of the resemblance of the leaf blades to those of the Mediterranean shrub. Specific name (dodonaei): Dedicated to Rembert Dodoens, latinized Dodonaeus, the renowned sixteenth-century Flemish physician and botanist whose works laid the foundations of Renaissance botanical systematics.