Erodium arborescens (Desf.)Willd.
Clade I; Subclade 1; Subgenus Erodium; Section Erodium
Perennial, subshrubby to 35cm, perennial stems woody, thick and contorted, about 12mm thick: tap root long with interrupted circular tubers.
Leaves in thick tufts on the green branch ends, entire, on long, stout petioles, outline triangular, round-dentate, about 60mm long and 50mm wide with deltoid or ovate acuminate, acute stipules 7mm long; stipules and bracts not much of a feature since the leaf bases are very close.

Inflorescence: an upright sparsely leafy branching annual stem of umbels each of 3-5 actinomorphic flowers 3-4 cm across, rose red with a dark centre; umbel bracts large, brownish, oval, fine hairy. Flowers March to April. Pollen: eastern populations Geranium-type (El Oqlar), Tunisia and Egypt populations Erodium-type (Guitt.).

Fruit: Mericarps have a very long feather, and a rather short coil; beaks 12-14cm.
2n=20 Guitt.
Distribution: Endemic to Africa – N. Arabia, Egypt to Tunisia, Israel: a xerophyte, found in hot deserts in rocky stony ground.
First published in Sp. Pl., ed. 4. 3: 638 (1800)
Synonyms:
Geranium arborescens Desf. in Fl. Atlant. 2: 110 (1798)
Erodium hussonii Boiss. in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 8: 119 (1849)