A stunning pink flower and the wild relative of many of our garden plants. The bright reddish-pink flowers have five petals and are produced in small clusters at the top of the stems from early to late summer. The leaves are hairy, dark green and slender. Once common, it has been lost from many sites and is now only found at around thirty sites in England and four in Wales. Its largest population is found in Buckfastleigh in Devon and may have been introduced by monks. It usually grows in open sites such as pastures, roadsides, field margins and, occasionally, on waste ground. It prefers slightly limey soils.

Ironically, Deptford in East London is the one place where the Deptford Pink may never have grown! The common name was the result of a mis-identification by the botanist Thomas Johnson, who 'discovered' the similar Maiden Pink in Deptford in 1633.