Lychnis fulgens Fischer var. wilfordii Regel, Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 34(4): 576. 1861; Silene wilfordii (Regel) H. Ohashi & H. Nakai.

Herbs perennial, 45--100 cm tall, glabrous or pilose with intermixed sparse multicellular eglandular hairs. Roots unknown. Stems simple or branched above. Leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 3--12 × 1--2.5 cm, glabrous, margin thickly ciliate. Dichasium rather dense, many flowered. Pedicel 3--20 mm; bracts linear-lanceolate. Flowers 2.5--3 cm in diam. Calyx narrowly funnel-shaped, 1.5--2 cm × 4--5 mm, veins prominent, teeth ca. 3 mm. Petal limb bright red, 4-lobed; lobes subulate to broadly filiform, apex acute; claw narrowly cuneate; coronal scales dark red, oblong. Stamens and styles exserted. Androgynophore ca. 5 mm. Capsule cylindric-ovoid, ca. 1 cm, equaling or slightly included in calyx. Seeds black-brown, reniform, ca. 1 mm, sharply pointed tuberculate. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Aug--Sep. 2n = 24.

Mabberley (in Telopea 8: 249–256) considered species nos. 2–6 to be conspecific, hypothesizing that the type specimens pertaining to them are of garden origin and that they could all be of hybrid origin. The morphological diversity should thus be a reflection of segregation of offspring in F2 or later generations.

Wet meadows, low river banks, woodland edges, forest margins; 200--1200 m. Jilin [Japan, N Korea, Russia (Far East)].