# What is this flower? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346 "2008-05-23T12:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/1 "2008-05-23T12:07:46Z")
This is a flower in my garden that I inherited from the previous owner. It stands about 18 inches high (those are grape hyacinths and mini daffodils by it). It is a soft-stemmed perennial that dies back completely in the winter. It has just begun flowering and will go on through June. This week both Japanese and foreigners have asked me what it is and I’d love to be able to tell them. Can anyone help me? Here it is on my flicker page [http://www.flickr.com/photos/75073195@N00/2516196032/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/75073195@N00/2516196032/) ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/2 "2008-05-23T12:22:37Z")
[QUOTE=Hokkaido Brit] This is a flower in my garden that I inherited from the previous owner. It stands about 18 inches high (those are grape hyacinths and mini daffodils by it). It is a soft-stemmed perennial that dies back completely in the winter. It has just begun flowering and will go on through June. This week both Japanese and foreigners have asked me what it is and I’d love to be able to tell them. Can anyone help me? Here it is on my flicker page [http://www.flickr.com/photos/75073195@N00/2516196032/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/75073195@N00/2516196032/) [/QUOTE] I saw one of those at the garden center yesterday. I thought it was labeled as a pink (dianthus, not color), but the photos I see on line don’t look quite the same, particularly the foliage. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/3 "2008-05-23T12:26:08Z")
No, it’s not a pink. It is bigger, and the stems are much softer and slightly hairy. The leaves are a different shape, too. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/4 "2008-05-23T12:27:56Z")
That looks a bit tall and leafy-in-the-stem for a pink, although it does look like it’s in the Caryophyllaceae. I would have said some kind of campion, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/5 "2008-05-23T12:30:38Z")
…Some cultivated variety of [Red Campion](http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&q=red+campion&btnG=Search+Images), I think. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/6 "2008-05-23T12:40:05Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] …Some cultivated variety of [Red Campion](http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&q=red+campion&btnG=Search+Images), I think. [/QUOTE] Yes! Thank you! That’s exactly what it is! Now here’s the challenge - what is that in Japanese??! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/7 "2008-05-23T13:14:07Z")
[QUOTE=Hokkaido Brit] Yes! Thank you! That’s exactly what it is! Now here’s the challenge - what is that in Japanese??! [/QUOTE] Dunno - there are some names for various closely-related plants (possibly including yours) on this page: > **[Silene](https://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Silene.html)** ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/8 "2008-05-23T13:30:52Z")
Googling \*\*red campion site:.jp \*\* gives: [レッドキャンピオン](http://www.botanic.jp/plants-ra/redcam.htm) Would that make sense? ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/9 "2008-05-23T13:31:13Z")
I looked “campion” up in an online dictionary, and the first one came back as “sensou”. I googled that and came up with a HUGE variety of plant photos, some of which were wildly different and some of which were vaguely similar. I tried another dictionary and it came up with the same name, or “mantema” On googling that, I got this > **[宮城教育大学暫定ホームページ](https://sites.google.com/staff.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/temporary?plant_id=12547&data_id=38796&cat_id=&srt=)** > > webサーバを一部メンテナンスしております。 which they call “Akebono sensou” and it very closely resembles my campion. So thank you again, mystery solved! ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/10 "2008-05-23T13:37:44Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] Googling \*\*red campion site:.jp \*\* gives: [レッドキャンピオン](http://www.botanic.jp/plants-ra/redcam.htm) Would that make sense? [/QUOTE] That just says “Red Campion” in Katakana! But looking at the site, the sixth photo down is the exact plant I have, and they also say it’s a mantema which seems to be a family name rather than a specific flower name. It’s a very nice site and I have bookmarked it - thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/11 "2008-05-23T13:44:20Z")
[QUOTE=Hokkaido Brit] That just says “Red Campion” in Katakana! But looking at the site, the sixth photo down is the exact plant I have, and they also say it’s a mantema which seems to be a family name rather than a specific flower name. It’s a very nice site and I have bookmarked it - thank you. [/QUOTE] Yes, I just figured that out by finding a katakana table and spelling out… re-tsu-do… ki-a-n-pi-o-n… :smack: (How do they turn “red” into “retsudo”, or am I reading it wrong?) Edit - OK, I’m reading it wrong, it’s one of [these](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon) not a “tsu”, so it’s “red-do”, right? ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/12 "2008-05-23T14:18:56Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] (How do they turn “red” into “retsudo”, or am I reading it wrong?) Edit - OK, I’m reading it wrong, it’s one of [these](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon) not a “tsu”, so it’s “red-do”, right? [/QUOTE] Yep! If it wasn’t there, it would come out as “redo” but with the little stop in there it comes out as “reddo” where you sort of hitch the sound in the back of your throat. (like a Londoner saying “Bottle” as “Bo-ul”.) Is that a glottal stop?? ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-flower/450346/13 "2008-05-23T15:18:01Z")
[QUOTE=Hokkaido Brit] Yep! If it wasn’t there, it would come out as “redo” but with the little stop in there it comes out as “reddo” where you sort of hitch the sound in the back of your throat. (like a Londoner saying “Bottle” as “Bo-ul”.) Is that a glottal stop?? [/QUOTE] It’s not a glottal stop. You just sort of pause over the “d”. The best explanation I ever got was that it’s like the difference in pronunciation between “unaimed” and “unnamed” (though that’s for “n”, not “d”, of course).