Maltese Cross

Plant taxonomy classifies Maltese cross as Lychnis chalcedonica. The derivation of the plant's common name is easily seen if you compare the flower structure to Maltese cross graphics (to do so, click on the "More Pictures" link at right to open the mini-photo gallery). Other common names include "London pride" and "Jerusalem cross."

Lychnis chalcedonica plants are herbaceous perennial flowers.

Maltese cross plants reach a height of 3-4 feet with a spread about half that. Their flower heads most commonly bear clusters of scarlet red blooms, although other colors do exist. Flowers bloom in mid-summer in my area (zone 5).

Indigenous to Russia, Lychnis chalcedonica can be grown in planting zones 3-10.

Plant Lychnis chalcedonica in full sun and in a well-drained soil.

Maltese cross flowers are often grown with yellow flowers to create striking red and yellow plant color schemes. Lychnis chalcedonica is also the type of perennial that gardeners interested in tradition tend to collect: a plant with a rich history (see below), Lychnis chalcedonica is an old-time favorite that has been grown for centuries.

Cut back the old stems of Lychnis chalcedonica down to the ground, in late spring. When Lychnis chalcedonica plants achieve some height, it's best to stake them: the stems tend to fall down. To promote continued flowering, deadhead flowers in summer.

This is one perennial certainly not grown for its foliage, which is not considered especially appealing: the leaves tend to look disheveled and brown up easily. And the weak stems require staking. But admirers of Lychnis chalcedonica overlook these features in order to enjoy the bright red color and unusual shape of the plant's flowers. Lychnis chalcedonica is an effective plant for attracting hummingbirds. It's also a good plant to attract butterflies.

This plant's flower structure can bear a resemblance to a Maltese cross graphic. But history buffs know that there's a rich history behind the Maltese cross symbol; and legend has it that the Maltese cross plant shares a bit of that history.

The Maltese cross symbol belonged to the Knights of Malta (Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean). According to tradition, it was these Knights of Malta who, at the time of the Crusades, brought Lychnis chalcedonica plants to Europe in their journeys home from the Holy Land....

If we look again at the species name, chalcedonica, we see where the Knights of Malta are thought to have discovered the plant: Chalcedon. Chalcedon was located in what is now Turkey. It was the site of a famous event in early Church history, the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451).

Meanwhile, the genus name, Lychnis, tells us that the plant is related to the better-known rose campion (Lychnis coronaria). Lychnis means "lamp" in Greek (presumably referring to the "brilliance" of the flowers).

But Does the Flower Really Look Like a Maltese Cross?

The Lychnis chalcedonica plants I encounter most commonly in North America at present (apparently, this wasn't always the case) bear mainly flowers with five petals. But as any Maltese cross graphic will reveal, the Maltese cross symbol has four parts: 4 "arrowheads" that intersect at their narrowest points (if you need to see this fact illustrated, click on the "More Pictures" link below the picture -- above, right -- to open the mini-photo gallery, where I have a Maltese cross graphic). So if you yourself own one of these plants sporting the five-petal look, you may start to wonder if the name "Maltese cross" isn't perhaps a misnomer. The more I looked at my own five-petaled Maltese cross, the more the discrepancy began bothering me.

I would speculate that gardeners over the centuries have grown two versions of what we now know as "Maltese cross." Folks used to distinguish between the two; but as time passed, the two came to be lumped together. One version, which has four petals, was first to claim the name "Maltese cross." The other, with five petals, may once have been called "Scarlet Lightning." So the latter now shares the name "Maltese cross" with the original perennials of that name, even though they're not, technically, cross-shaped (and to confuse matters further, the name "Scarlet Lighting" now doubles as an alternative common name for all Lychnis chalcedonica plants). Perhaps cross-breeding over the years reached a point where it was no longer deemed necessary to draw a distinction between the two.

Note: I cannot back up this hypothesis and would welcome information from anyone who can supply either corroborative or contradictory evidence .

The plant with the four-petaled flowers can best lay claim to the name because of its cross shape. At least the five-petaled type does also display, at the tips of its petals, the signature indented Vs made famous by Maltese cross graphics.

There's still hope of witnessing a perfect Maltese cross even if you grow the 5-petaled type. One day I was admiring the blooms on my own Scarlet Lightning plant when, suddenly, I had to do a double take: one stray 4-petaled flower (photo above) appeared in a red sea of otherwise 5-petaled blooms. I was as delighted as if I had just discovered a 4-leaf clover!