Deptford Pink

On our walk this week along the "Stour Valley Path" we came across the above a very rare flower a "Deptford Pink", a stunning pink flower and a wild relative of the popular garden plant Sweet William.
The only reason that we found it was that we came upon a gentleman doing a survey in the hedgerow and we had the cheek to ask him what he was doing. He informed us that he was doing a survey on this flower as it was once common, but has now been lost from many sites.
Losses continue and it currently occupies only 7% of its total historic area, with many of these populations being very small. The "Deptford Pink" is now extinct in Scotland and is not found in Northern Ireland.
It usually grows in open sites such as in pastures, roadsides, field margins and, occasionally, on waste ground.
It was a fantastic find for what was a simple walk in the Suffolk countryside!