The scent of carnations is often described as spicy, clove-like, or reminiscent of a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg, hence the common name "clove pink".

With numerous cultivars and hybrids, carnations offer a wide variety of colors and forms, making them popular for gardens, floral arrangements, and scented products.

Overall, carnations are enduring symbols of beauty and grace, treasured by flower enthusiasts and used to convey heartfelt emotions.

[6] The name "carnation" is believed to come from the Latin corona, a "wreath, garland, chaplet, crown",[7] as it was one of the flowers used in Greek and Roman ceremonial crowns, or possibly from the Latin caro (genitive carnis), "flesh",[7] which refers to the natural colour of the flower, or in Christian iconography incarnatio, "incarnation", God made flesh in the form of Jesus.

(Correction needed) The leaves are glaucous greyish green to blue-green, slender, up to 15 cm (6 in) long.

[5][9] The wild carnation is found in the Mediterranean countries of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Albania, Greece and Turkey.

[11] Crossbreeding D. caryophyllus with D. capitatus results in a hybrid that is resistant to bacterial wilt from Paraburkholderia caryophylli.

In communist Czechoslovakia and in Poland in times of the People's Republic of Poland, carnations were traditionally given to women on the widely celebrated Women's Day, together with commodities that were difficult to obtain due to the countries' communist system, such as tights, towels, soap and coffee.

[citation needed] After the 1990 uprisings against Soviets in Azerbaijan in which 147 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, 800 people were injured and five people went missing, the carnation has become a symbol of the Black January tragedy associated with the carnations thrown into the puddles of blood shed in the streets of Azerbaijan subsequent to the massacre.

The choice was made to honor William McKinley, Ohio governor and U.S. president, who was assassinated in 1901, and regularly wore a scarlet carnation on his lapel.

It shares this characteristic with other widely sold flowers like roses, lilies, tulips, chrysanthemums and gerberas.

Around 1996, a company, Florigene, used genetic engineering to extract certain genes from petunia and snapdragon flowers to produce a blue-mauve carnation, which was commercialized as Moondust.