The familiar, elegant carnation is a plant with a long and interesting history, mostly forgotten, despite its importance as a decorative flower today.
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| carnations, Dianthus caryophyllus |
Carnation is the current common name of plants with the scientific name Dianthus caryophyllus, in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae. It and virtually all its close relatives are native to Eurasia. A pretty flower usually pink, wild carnations grew all across southern Europe. Long ago they were transferred to gardens and domesticated, moving them all across Eurasia. For example, ancient Rome used flowers lavishly, in celebrations large and small and they grew carnations for cut flowers in great numbers.
The name carnation only goes back to the 1500s. Europeans called them pinks in their local languages. Pink referred not to flower color, but to the jagged edges of the petals. Pinking is an old word, meaning to be narrow or jagged. The jagged edge of Dianthus petals is characteristic and not shared with other European flowers and so much more diagnostic than the flower color. Language has changed so most of us know the color pink but not pinking an edge, but the plants have kept the name pink. (See blog on pinks link). The carnation was called, among other things, clove pink.
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| carnations in garden |
Our carnation was also called gilliflower and clove gilliflower. Gilliflower, the Oxford English Dictionary says, is a corruption of the French word for clove. Cloves were an important spice, the unopened flowers of the tree Syzygium armonaticum (myrtle family, Myrtaceae). Clove trees grew only in the East Indies but cloves were traded across Eurasia before Roman times. People loved them and paid high prices for a few tiny flower buds. Carnations have been cultivated in much of Eurasia for at least 2000 years. So they were growing near everyone and they smell like cloves. The plants became a domestic clove, the petals a spice or condiment. So the little wildflower was called a gilliflower (that is "clove"), a clove pink, or clove gilliflower (redundant: "clove clove").
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| clove gilliflower |
Consequently carnations have a rich history as a spice and later as an edible flower added for color and interest. Carnation petals were added to creams and puddings, glazed with sugar, sprinkled fresh on salads or desserts, and dried or pickled for future use. The Normans made a wine with them. In fact, carnation petals flavored wines, ales, and beers for centuries. They are one of the incredients in the French liqueur Chartreuse. These uses gave the plant the now obsolete common name sops-in-wine. Modern recipes put them atop whipped cream, add them to rice, and garnish salads, with them, though of course you can also saute them, freeze them into ice cubes, or cook them into a syrup. Still edible, still spicy and colorful.
By the 1500s, the spice trade was bringing lots of cloves to Europe and gardeners were growing ever-more interesting clove pinks. A cultivated clove pink that was called the carnation appeared in Europe about then, maybe brought back from the Crusades, likely part of the Ottoman emperor's vast garden flower collection. "Carnation" meant "flesh or skin colored" in 16th century England, a rosy pink color, and that was the color of this wonderful new variety. The name stuck.
Or, the popularity of the flower led to its name being used as a color word. An alternate theory of the origin of "carnation" is that it is a version of "coronation," from coronaria, a small crown, because people wore the flowers in chaplets on their heads. The Oxford English Dictionary does not take a side. In either case clove gilliflowers were renamed by popular usage to give us the now universal common name carnation and the color word carnation as well.
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| carnations Dianthus caryophyllus |
| In the 1500s people were wild about carnations. Italian medical doctor and botanist Pier Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) loved the clove scent of carnations and filled his home with them, in the garden, in pots, and cut, perfuming the air, and of course delighting the eyes. White carnations were a symbol of purity and frequently used in church services. In late Medieval paintings, they appeared as a symbol of motherhood. Red carnations symbolized Christ's blood. |
In the middle 1700s, our current scientic names were established. Carnation and other pinks were put in the genus Dianthus. This was their name in Greek; dios means "divine" and anthos "flower," named both for their beauty and scent, but also because they were used in ceremonies including religious ones. The species epithet caryophyllus is also from Greek. In Greek, karya is "walnut" and phyllon is "leaf" which called it "walnut leaf." That was the Greek term for cloves, so caryophyllus is "clove" or "clove-like."
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| red carnations |
Wild carnations bloom for a few weeks in midsummer. Gardeners created a "perpetually flowering carnation" that would continue to bloom for months. It was especially productive in glass houses, which were developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Carnations were available for longer and longer periods.
By the Victorian era, there were dozens of carnations available. In the Language of Flowers, where a meaning was added to a flower so that a message came along with the bouquet, white carnations meant purity, pink carnations "a woman's love," deep red carnations "oh! my poor heart!", striped carnations "refusal", and yellow carnations "distain."
Carnation petals taste of cloves and are safe to eat. Carnation leaves are rich in antioxidants and saponins, which can ease digestion in a tonic or soothe the skin in a cream, but are better used as medicine than food, since they upset some people's stomachs. There is not a lot of modern research that supports medical uses of carnations, although the chemical compounds of carnation leaves suggest they should be helpful.
A plant this common inspires folklore:
An old Christian story tells that when Mary saw Jesus carrying the cross, she cried. Where her tears fell, carnations grew. Thus, they represent mother's love. And are a symbol of Mother's Day.
Elizabethans wore carnations as protection against untimely execution. Folklore says they can be general protection from danger and evil.
The presence of carnations in the room reportedly helps patients heal with its curative powers.
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| bouquet of carnations |
Napoleon used carnation red for the ribbon of his Legion of Honour medal. Carnation red also described the flag of international communism, and communist-supporting protesters in England and France wore red carnations in the early 1900s.
William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, thought a red carnation had brought him luck when running for office, so he routinely wore a red carnation in his lapel. He kept a vase of them in his office. At Buffalo, New York's Pan-American Exposition in 1837, he was greeting the public when a small girl asked for his carnation. Although he did not usually give them away, he gave her the carnation. A few moments later, Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley and he died eight days later.
The red carnation is the symbol of the Portugal's peaceful 1974 revolution. Offered a carnation, the soldier tucked it into the barrel of his rifle. A potent symbol of peaceful intent. (Google Carnation Revolution to see the photos.)
There must be more times and places where carnations were used as symbols and emblems. They are beautiful flowers.
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| carnation |
Comments and corrections welcomed.
References/ Sources
Al-Snafi, A. E. 2017. Chemical contents and medical importance of Dianthus caryophyllus- A review. IOSR Journal of Pharmacy. 7 (3): 61-71.
Cunningham, S. 2003. Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. expanded edition. Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN.
Fraga, K. 2018. William McKinley and the Red Carnation. History First blog. link
Greenaway, K. 1979. Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers. Originally 1884. Avenel Books. New York.
How the Carnation became the Symbol of Portugal's Revolution. 2025. Liveluso.com Accessed 1/24/26. link
Martin, L.C. 1987. Garden Flower Folklore. The Globe Pequot Press.Chester, Connecticut.
Oxford English Dictionary, “carnation,” "clove", "gilliflower", "pink" https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3073930682. Accessed 1/24/26.
Pickles, S. editor. 1989. The Language of Flowers. Harmony Books, New York.
Research I did for an earlier blog Pinks. this blog, June 2024. link
Rich, V. A. 1998.Cursing the Basil and other Folklore of the Garden. Horsdal and Schubart, Publishers. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Riley, G. 2009. The Oxford Companion to Italian Food. Oxford University Press. London.
Stearn, W. T. 1996. Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. Castell Publishing, London.
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