ERODIUM CICONIUM

Family and Genus:- See- GERANIACEAE

Common Names:- Sand storksbill

Homotypic Synonyms:- Geranium ciconium.

Meaning:- Erodium (Gr) Heron (reference to the shape of fruit, stork's-bill).

Ciconium (L) Resembling the neck of a stork.

General description:- Annual or biennial.

Stems:-

1) 20-60 cm, single-stemmed or sparingly branched from the base, with short,

patent, glandular and eglandular hairs throughout.

Leaves:-

1) Up to 9 cm, pinnate at least near the base; leaflets pinnatisect, the ultimate

segments dentate or pinnatifid; intercalary lobes present.

Flowers:-

1) Umbels, with 3-10 flowers.

2) Bracts, ovate-lanceolate, densely hairy.

3) Sepals, 12-20 mm., at anthesis, oblong, cuspidate, glandular-hairy.

4) Petals, c. 8 mm, slightly exceeding the sepals bluish or lilac, with darker veins.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, 9-14 mm, with numerous whitish hairs; apical pits deep, densely

glandular, without a furrow at the base.

2) Beak, 60-100 mm.

Key features:-

1) Mericarps, 9-14 mm.

2) Sepals, 12-20 mm.

3) Leaf with intercalary lobes or leaflets.

4) Apical pits of mericarp glandular-hairy.

5) Leaves, pinnate for most of their length (sometimes pinnatisect towards the

apex).

6) Intercalary leaflets, much smaller than the principal ones, present.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Fallow fields, olive groves and ruderal habitats, sometimes in dry open

shrubby vegetation or open woodland. 0-500 m.

Distribution:- Common in mainland Greece, rare in Peloponnisos and W of the

Pindos. - Widespread in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Fairly rare on

Crete, known from only a few scattered coastal locations.

Flowering time:- End Feb-May.

Photos by:- Kind permission of Saxifraga - Free Nature Images and Wiki-Commons