phlox (n.)

genus of North American ornamental plants, 1706, from Latin, where it was the name of a flower (Pliny), from Greek phlox "kind of plant with showy flowers" (probably Silene vulgaris), literally "a flame," related to phlegein "to burn" (from PIE root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn"). Applied to the North American flowering plant by German botanist Johann Jakob Dillenius (1684-1747).