Erodium alpinum (Burm.f.) L’Her.
Erodium alpinum is an androdioecious perennial from central Italy, with a rootstock crowned with dwarf branched caudex and old stipules.
Leaves: Leaves mostly basal; petiole long, densely soft-hairy; blade rather less hairy, ovate in outline, bipinnatisect, lobules deeply toothed but not finely divided, with intercalary leaflets, laminules not finely divided. Stipules triquetrous lanceolate, acute, brown, margin ciliate, 7-10mm x 3mm.
Inflorescence: sparsely leafy annual flowering stems to 300mm; first peduncles long, later ones shorter; Umbels of 2-9 red or deep pink flowers, no markings; sepals with a long mucro; petals rather oval; staminodes hairy and ciliate; anthers purple; pollen orange.
Fruit: Beak 40-50mm; mericarp – foveole is only feebly glandular; with no furrow. Plants are androdioecious: either male only or normal bisexual. 2n=18
Distribution: endemic to Italy, Abruzzi; central mountains at 1200-2000m in open areas.
First published in Geraniologia: t. 3 (1792)
