[2] The specific epithet carolina refers to its native habitat in the eastern United States.

[5] It is the parent of numerous garden cultivars, of which 'Bill Baker'[6] (pink) and 'Miss Lingard'[7] (pure white) have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

[11] The leaf type of Phlox carolina is simple with an opposite arrangement, an entire margin, and a lanceolate to ovate shape.

[13] It was described and named by several individuals before being included in Carl Linnaeus's second edition of Species Plantarum.

Plant geneticists use the ITS spacer of ribosomal and chloroplast DNA to differentiate P. carolina from other closely related Phlox species to resolve the complex.

It is heat tolerant and grows in full sun or partial shade.

[1] Phlox carolina is considered to be critically imperiled in West Virginia.

It serves as a food source for small mammals such as Cottontail Rabbits.

[22] Other fungi diseases include Cotton root rot caused by Phymatotrichum omnivorum.