ERODIUM MOSCHATUM

Family and Genus:- See- GERANIACEAE

Common Names:- Musk stork's bill.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Geranium cicutarium var. moschatum, Geranium

moschatum

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

Moschatum (Gr) Musk-like, musky-scented.

General description:- Herbaceous, annual or biennial, smelling of musk.

Stems:-

1) 10-50 cm, hispid with usually deflexed hairs, dense above, sparse below.

Leaves:-

1) Up to 20 cm, oblong-lanceolate, pinnate almost throughout their length, without

intercalary leaflets.

2) Leaflets, ovate, dentate, serrate or somewhat pinnatifid, the lower ones remote.

Flowers:-

1) Umbels, with 5-12 flowers.

2) Bracts, several, broadly ovate, subacute, subglabrous, pale brown.

3) Sepals, 6-9 mm.

4) Petals, c. 15 mm, violet or purple.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, 5-6 mm, with patent, brown or white hairs; apical pits very wide,

glandular, with a wide, deep furrow at the base.

2) Beak, 20-45 mm.

Key features:-

1) Intercalary leaflets, absent.

2) Plant, caulescent.

3) Most of the leaflets, divided less than half-way to the midrib.

4) Apical pits, of mericarp glandular.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Olive groves, field margins, wasteground. 0-700(-1400).

Distribution:- Mediterranean region eastwards to W Iran; frequently naturalized or

casual elsewhere. Widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- (Feb-) Mar-May.

Photo by:- Fotis Samaritakis