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Caryophyllaceae   -   Pinks and Carnations

The Caryophyllaceae is a family 88 genera and 3000 species of flowering herbs with a few shrubby genera. Most members of the Caryophyllaceae are non-succulent. Stem nodes are characteristically swollen and leaves usually simple and opposite. The Caryophyllaceae is distributed through temperate worldwide, although most of the species are in the Northern hemisphere.
 
Unlike other families in the Order Caryophyllales, plants in the Caryophyllaceae have anthocyanin not betelain pigments. They are thought to have evolved from ancestral species with betelains.
 
Species in Dianthus (Pinks, Carnations), Lychnis and Silene (Campions) are grown as garden plants. Many species of Dianthus are sweetly perfumed. Dianthus is of economic importance for the cut flower industry.
 
Honckenya peploides Honckenya is a monotypic genus.
Left: Sea Sandwort Honckenya peploides is a widely-distributed plant with fleshy leaves that grows on Atlantic and Pacific beach margins around the Northern hemisphere, tolerating salt spray and Arctic cold. Small white flowers are followed by brown domed seed capsules. Roots grow very deep into the substrate. The plant is said to be edible as a pot-herb or pickled.
 
Photographed on a shingle beach at Littlehampton, UK.

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