fire pink
Silene virginica
A genus split is not a placement verdict.
Is this one for your yard?
Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yes, fire pink is rated fire resistant, with support from extension services in North Carolina and Oregon.
North Carolina’s 2005 firewise guidance placed fire pink in the lowest band of a four-level flammability scale covering about 200 native plants. The state extension service’s 2025 successor guide also calls it low flammability under a revised three-level scale, where low-rated plants are recommended. Its live Plant Toolbox continues to use the same low-flammability tag, adding corroboration rather than a separate basis for the verdict.
Oregon State’s extension service profiles fire pink among plants considered fire resistant under Willamette Valley growing conditions and identifies it as a perennial suited to USDA hardiness zones 4 through 8. Fire pink is also native across the southeastern, north-central, and northeastern United States, so the North Carolina findings concern a plant native to that region rather than an unfamiliar introduction.
Together, the extension findings make a solid case for choosing fire pink as a fire-resistant landscape plant. The term does not promise that the plant cannot burn; it means the expert-curated scales consistently place it among the lower-flammability or recommended choices under the conditions those services address.
- Form
- perennial
- Rated in
- NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US; Oregon (Willamette Valley)