GERANIUM ROTUNDIFOLIUM

Family and Genus:- See- GERANIACEAE

Common Names:- Round leaved crane's-bill

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Geranium (Gr) Crane. A name used by the Greek physician and

botanist Dioscorides referring to to the shape of the fruit resembling the head of a

crane.

Rotundifolium (L) Having rounded leaves.

General description:- Herbaceous annual.

Stems:-

1) 10-40 cm, erect or ascending, with long and short hairs, both glandular and

eglandular mixed.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, 3-7·5 cm wide, divided for 25-40 % of the radius into 5-7 contiguous,

cuneate lobes, which are deeply crenate or divided apically into short,

obtuse segments.

2) Upper, more deeply divided, with more acute segments.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, usually shorter than subtending leaves.

2) Sepals, 5-6 mm, mucronate.

3) Petals, 5-7 mm, entire or very slightly emarginate, pink.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, hairy, without ridges.

Key features:-

1) Petals, entire, without a distinct claw.

2) Sepals, ± patent during flowering.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Open dry shrubby vegetation, fallow fields, olive groves, roadsides. 0-800

(1500) m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-June (-July)

Photos by:- Steve Lenton