UPDATE: Fire Pinks In The Park

May 19, 2026

Hiking through Virginia right now provides beautiful surprises. This brilliant scarlet flower is one of those delights. It’s Fire Pink (Silene virginica), which is native to eastern and central North America.

This striking plant belongs to the carnation, pink, or the Caryophyllaceae family, which includes flowers that have petals that seem to have the edges cut by pinking shears. That is how the common name of Fire Pink comes about, not from the color pink.

Given the vivid scarlet of the flowers, they are definitely easy to spot. I’ve dicovered them blooming not only here on my mountain but also in Shenandoah National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

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Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

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