Lycene is the name given to an intergeneric cross between Silene and Lychnis, two genera that are so closely related, they are frequently mentioned in the same breath.
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More Information About Lycene
x Lycene is the name given to an intergeneric cross between Silene and Lychnis, two genera that are so closely related, they are frequently mentioned in the same breath. Some taxonomists want to merge the two genera into a unified Silene, while others argue that there are enough phylogenetic differences to warrant two separate genera. Lychnis x Silene crosses appear elsewhere in the garden and include another big seller of ours, which we do not sell as x Lycene but rather as Lychnis 'Rolly's Favorite'.
Horticulturists like us here at PDN have to span the verbal gap between the mothball-sniffing, Latin-spouting taxonomists of the botany world and the no-nonsense, keep-it-simple expectations of the retail gardening world, so we often have multiple names to represent a single plant. x Lycene is one of those cases, and you may see these crosses listed in garden catalogs as Silene, Lychnis, x Lycene or all of the above. Confusing, I know, but such is the world of taxonomic nomenclature where everyone is using the same naming rules (the International Code of Botanic Nomenclature) and yet somehow, nobody can agree on a single name.
Both x Lycene parents are in the same plant family as Dianthus and are also closely related to Saponaria . We recommend pairing x Lycene with other late spring flowering plants like Iris, Phlox, Achillea and Sisyrinchium. When you are ready to buy x Lycene for your garden, check out our online list of x Lycene for sale below.