Mediterranean stork's-bill

Description

Erodium botrys is a species of flowering plant in the geranium family known by the common names longbeak stork's bill, Mediterranean stork's-bill and broadleaf filaree. This is an annual herb which is native to much of Eurasia, the Mediterranean region, and North Africa. It is found in many other areas of the world as a weedy introduced species, including Australia, New Zealand, and parts of the Americas. Erodium botrys starts from a flat rosette of highly lobed green leaves on red petioles. It grows to heights of anywhere from 10 to 90 centimeters with somewhat hairy stems and foliage. It bears small flowers with hairy, pointed sepals surrounding five purple-streaked lavender petals. The filaree fruit is quite long, its style reaching up to 12 centimeters in length. Erodium is a genus of flowering plants in the botanical family Geraniaceae. The genus includes about 60 species, native to North Africa, Indomalaya, the Middle East, and Australia. They are perennials, annuals, or subshrubs, with five-petalled flowers in shades of white, pink, and purple, that strongly resemble the better-known Geranium (cranesbill). Cultivated plants are known as filarees or heron's bill in North America, whereas in the British Isles they are usually called storksbills. Carl Linnaeus grouped in the same genus (Geranium), the three similar genera Erodium, Geranium, and Pelargonium. The distinction between them was made by Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle based on the number of stamens or anthers: five for Erodium, seven for Pelargonium, and ten for Geranium.However, the three genera have the same characteristics in regard to their fruit, which resemble long bird beaks. That characteristic is the basis for the names: Geranium evokes the crane (Greek geranos), Pelargonium the stork (pelargos), and Erodium the heron (erodios). In cultivation, erodiums are usually seen in rockeries or alpine gardens. The hybrid cultivar E. × variabile 'Roseum' (E. corsicum × E. reichardii), a compact, spreading perennial with rose-pink flowers in summer, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Erodium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the pasture day moth.