ERODIUM LACINIATUM

Family and Genus:- See- GERANIACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Erodium chium var. laciniatum, Erodium triangulare

var. dissectum, Erodium triangulare subsp. laciniatum, Geranium

laciniatum.

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

Laciniatum (L) Jagged, fringed, slashed, with many flaps.

General description:- Herbaceous annual or biennial.

Stems:-

1) 7-50 cm, with deflexed hairs at least near the base.

Leaves:-

1) 2-7 cm, oblong to broadly ovate, very variously dissected, undivided and

irregularly serrate, or with 3 pinnatifid lobes, or almost bipinnatisect with linear-

lanceolate segments.

Flowers:-

1) Umbels, with 4-9 flowers.

2) Bracts, 2, suborbicular to reniform, glabrous, brown.

3) Hairs, on the pedicels and sepals eglandular.

4) Sepals, c. 7 mm, distinctly mucronate.

5) Petals, 7-10 mm, purplish.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, 4·5-6·5 mm, with short, whitish hairs; apical pits shallow, eglandular,

without a furrow at the base.

2) Beak, 35-90 mm.

Key features:-

1) Bract, at the base of the umbel 2, suborbicular to reniform.

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Habitat:- Sandy coastal localities, sometimes in field margins, olive groves and

ruderal habitats. 0-200(1400) m.

Distribution:- Scattered and fairly rare in coastal areas of W Greece Fairly

widespread around the Mediterranean coastal regions lacking in the interior. -

Mediterranean region and SW Asia eastwards to Pakistan. Somewhat scattered

around the coastal areas of Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-May, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis