This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
L. Ftos-cuculi. - Color, red. Calyx, with 5 short teeth. Petals, 5, each divided into 4 long, narrow lobes. These linear lobes, erect, wavy, or curled, make the flower "ragged." The color suggests the red breast of the robin, hence the common name.
Flowers, in loose panicles. Stem, erect, sticky above, 1 to 2 feet high. Lower leaves, 1 to 3 inches long, narrow, petioled; upper, small, bract-like.
Wet soil, in waste places, New Jersey and northward. Sometimes cultivated.
 
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