Lychnis is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of 15-25 species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Caryophyllaceae

Caryophyllaceae

The Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactaceae and Polygonaceae...

, native to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and north Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The genus is closely related to (and sometimes included in) Silene

Silene

Silene is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. Common names include campion and catchfly....

, differing in the flowers having five styles (three in Silene), the seed capsule having five teeth (six in Silene), and in the sticky stems of Lychnis. Common names include campion

Campion

Campion may refer to:-Biology:* Flowering plants of the Caryophyllaceae genera Lychnis and Silene, including:** Silene acaulis, or moss campion, a flower found in Eurasia and North America...

 (shared with Silene) and catchfly, the latter name based on the sticky stems.

Selected species

• Lychnis alba (White Cockle)
• Lychnis alpina (Alpine Catchfly)
• Lychnis chalcedonica
  Lychnis chalcedonica
  Lychnis chalcedonica Lychnis chalcedonica Lychnis chalcedonica (Burning Love, Dusky Salmon, Flower of Bristol, Jerusalem Cross, Maltese Cross, Nonesuch; syn...
  
  (Maltese Cross)
• Lychnis cognata
• Lychnis coeli-rosa
  Lychnis coeli-rosa
  Rose of Heaven is an ornamental plant....
  
  (Rose of Heaven)
• Lychnis coronaria
  Lychnis coronaria
  Silene coronaria is a species of flowering plant in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae, that is native to Asia and Europe. Common names include Dusty Miller , Mullein-pink, Rose Campion, and Bloody William. It is cultivated as an ornamental.-References:* Armitage, Allan M...
  
  (Rose Campion)
• Lychnis coronata
• Lychnis flos-cuculi (Ragged Robin)
• Lychnis flos-jovis
  Lychnis flos-jovis
  Flower-of-Jove is an ornamental plant....
  
  (Flower-of-Jove)
• Lychnis fulgens
• Lychnis nivalis
• Lychnis senno
• Lychnis sibirica
• Lychnis sieboldii
• Lychnis viscaria (Sticky Catchfly)
• Lychnis wilfordii

The Lychnis

Lychnis (moth)

The Lychnis is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in northern and western Europe.This species has dark brown forewings marked with two prominent white-bordered stigmata and a white subterminal line. The hindwings are buffish, darkening to brown towards the margin but with a prominent...

 is also the common name of Hadena bicruris, a species of noctuid

Noctuidae

The Noctuidae or owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....

 moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

. The larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

 of this moth feeds on Lychnis species, as do some other Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 including Cabbage Moth

Cabbage Moth

Note: the Small White species of butterfly is commonly called a "cabbage moth" in North America.The Cabbage Moth is a common European moth of the family Noctuidae....

 (recorded on L. chalcedonica), Grey Chi

Grey Chi

The Grey Chi is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout Europe. Although it is not present in southern Spain and Greece, as well as northern Fennoscandia...

 and case-bearers of the genus Coleophora

Coleophora

Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions...

including C. albella (feeds exclusively on L. flos-cuculi) and C. leucapennella.