sweet William catchfly, Atocion armeria

Catchfly or catcheye? This pretty Eurasian certainly does catch your eye. It has been a garden species for a long time, and came to this continent for that purpose very early. Then started spreading very early. The oldest specimen of an introduced plant from this county is sweet William catcfly, collected at Tecumseh in 1832. Tecumseh was the first settlement here, founded in 1824. The species does not seem to persist for long. There are no more recent collections of this plant from here. Sweet William catchfly is a frequent part of commercial wildflower seed packets, and that seemed to be the source of the plants on the roadside where this image came from. Sweet William catchfly has been reported from AK, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, BC, NB, NS, ON, and QC. Ouray Co CO, 6/21/13. Pink family, Caryophyllaceae.