Dianthus crenatus Thunb.

Stout glabrous perennial herb, + woody at the base. Vegetative shoots generally absent on flowering specimens, when present generally without elongated internodes, bearing a tuft of leaves. Flowering shoots few to many, prostrate or decumbent, elongated and woody at the base, sometimes branched, leafy below, with a terminal inflorescence. Leaves yellow-green (rarely glaucous), the lowermost somewhat clustered towards the base of the flowering shoots, flat, exceeding the internodes in length, lanceolate to elliptic-oblanceolate, (3.5-)-6.0(-10.5) cm long, (0.2-)0.3(-0.5) cm wide, suddenly narrowed to an acute apex, often narrowing towards the base, narrowly membranous and ciliolate or squamulose on the margin at least at the base, smooth above, 5-or 7-nerved, nerves prominent beneath; sheath-length equal to or somewhat shorter than leaf-width; cauline leaves decreasing in size upwards, uppermost shorter than the internodes, lanceolate to ovate and acuminate, with a narrow membranous ciliolate border, and 3 or 5 nerves. Inflorescence: peduncles stout, 25-60 cm high, often curved, once-branched with a few long single-flowered branches or, in robust specimens, twice-branched and subpaniculate with up to 20 flowers; lowermost bracts foliose, uppermost squamiform, broadly lanceolate or ovate and acuminate, 0.5-0.7 cm long, c. 0.3 cm wide, with a somewhat inflated sheath, membranous margin and 3-9 nerves. Calyx-bracts pale straw-coloured, often tinged green, blue-purple or brown especially at the apex, (2)3(4) pairs, scarious, ovate-elliptic, flat or shallowly concave, rounded on the back, with a broad acute apex, membranous smooth or ciliolate margin, and prominent nerves, the midrib often excurrent in a minute mucro. Calyx pale green or straw-coloured, cylindrical and gradually narrowed at the base, or more or less ellipsoid, (1.5-)2.5(-3.6) cm long, (0.3-)0.4(-0.55) cm diameter; lobes brown, lanceolate or narrowly ovate, (0.35-)0.6(-0.7) cm long, overlapping at the base, membranous on the margin, acute or apiculate at the apex, with 7 or 9 nerves per lobe; anthophore short, up to 0.2 cm long. Corolla ‘pink’ or ‘pale pink’; petal-lamina obovate or deltoid, (0.8-)1.1(-1.5) cm long, (0.5-)0.8(-1.0) cm wide, crenate or dentate on the antical margin, narrowed rapidly into the included claw. Androecium: anthers c. 0.3 cm long. Gynoecium: gynophore short, c. 0.1 cm long. Capsule not exserted from the calyx.