“What’s this?” asked Charlotte, holding a stiff stem topped by daisy-like flowers.

She had a piece of ragged Robin, easily identified by its deep rose color, inch-broad and five-petalled blooms. Each petal divides into four lobes, for a “ragged” effect.

The plant grows in colonies, about 1 to 2 feet tall, and there are several flowers to a cluster. Charlotte’s came from a steep bank in full sun; other groups may grow in fields or on soggy land. Ragged Robin colonies may have been planted or sown in green areas for highway beautification.

Those tousled flowers furnish a lovely little mass of color, but don’t expect the same effect when brought indoors for a posy. Like chicory (or dusty sailor), the color will pale, sometimes to tattle-tale gray. But they last well in a vase.

Hereabouts, I’ve seen only deep pink-flowered plants. Elsewhere, each June I would look for a colony of white ragged Robins. Because he couldn’t bear to cut them down, they stood tall in the middle of John’s yard as he mowed around them until they went by.

In the wildflower gardens of many purists, one may never find this pretty plant. Formally Lychnis flos-cuculi, it’s a long-ago import from Europe or Asian Russia, which has escaped into the landscape of our Northeastern States.

Another name for this immigrant (asking asylum?) is cuckoo flower. Looking it up, I found that to be the name of a different British wildflower. Who has an answer?

Lychnis flos-cuculi is a member of the Pink family, or Caryophyllaceae – that is, if the DNA Detectives haven’t changed its status. (If they have, I’ll hear about it!)

Now that you’ve met ragged Robin, you’ll begin to notice this perennial.