Found in shady areas of oak woodlands and other forest vegetation types in all counties of California outside of the extreme high elevations of the Sierras, the dry deserts in the south, and the Central Valley, you can now find California Indian Pink (Silene californica Durand) blooming throughout. This relative of the ornamental carnation is in the "Pink" plant family Caryophyllaceae, and has "pink" in its common name, but is otherwise not pink in color, but rather crimson or scarlet red in color. Another common name for this perennial plant species is California Scarlet Campion and is sometimes referred to as "fringed" because of its cleft petals. The genus name Silene is probably derived from the Greek name Silenus who according to Greek mythology was the intoxicated foster father of the Greek god Bacchus and was described as covered with foam ... perhaps alluding to the viscid sticky secretion covering many of the plant parts of the species in this genus. This sticky secretion traps many small insects.
