phlox

/floks/, n.

1. any plant of the genus Phlox, of North America, certain species of which are cultivated for their showy flowers of various colors. Cf. phlox family.

2. the flower of this plant.

[1595-1605; < ML, special use of L phlox < Gk phlóx a flame-colored plant, lit., FLAME. See PHLEGM, PHLOGISTIC]

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Any of about 65 species of plants (genus Phlox), belonging to the family Polemoniaceae, admired both in gardens and in the wilds for their clustered heads of flowers.

All species but one are native to North America. Phlox is herbaceous, usually with oval or linear leaves; it has heads of massed tubular flowers with five flaring lobes. A few species are woody, but most are herbaceous annuals or perennials. Sizes range from the 5-ft-high (1.5-m) summer phlox (P. paniculata) to the 18-in.-high (45-cm) woodland perennial blue phlox (P. divaricata) to the low-creeping, freely branching, evergreen moss pink, or creeping phlox (P. subulata).

Moss pink (Phlox subulata)

Russ Kinne

Photo Researchers/EB Inc.

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▪ plant

plural  Phlox, or Phloxes 

 (genus Phlox), any of about 65 species of plants belonging to the family Polemoniaceae, admired both in gardens and in the wilds for their clustered heads of flowers. All species but one from northeastern Asia are native to North America. Phlox is herbaceous, usually with oval or linear leaves; it has heads of massed tubular flowers with five flaring lobes.

      Summer phlox (P. paniculata) sometimes reaches more than 1.5 m (5 feet) high, on straight, stiff stems topped by reddish purple to white, fragrant, large, flat flower heads. It grows in rich, moist soils. Annual phlox (P. drummondii) is a 45-centimetre (1.5-foot), branching plant with usually reddish purple blooms. It has given rise to many cultivated forms with petals of two colours and starlike shape. Blue phlox (P. divaricata) is a spring-flowering woodland perennial growing to 45 cm, with blue to white flower clusters. Perennial phlox (P. pilosa), about the same height, bears red-purple flowers on hairy plants in summer in upland woods and prairies of central North America.

      Moss pink, or creeping phlox (P. subulata), a low, evergreen mat covered in early spring with blue, purple, pink, or white massed blooms, is native to sandy soil and rocky ledges in eastern North America. Moss pinks, often grown as garden perennials, creep along the soil, branching freely.

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