Erodium cicutarium (L)L’Her. “Common Storksbill”
Erodium cicutarium is annual; plant suberect to procumbent, to 60cm.
Leaves pinnate, with entire to pinnatipartite leaflets and with no intercalary leaflets, with few or no glandular hairs.
Inflorescence: Flowers small, mostly less than 10 mm, petals narrow obovate, pinkish purple or occasionally white, unmarked or the upper 2 often 2-spotted;
Fruit: mericarps with eglandular foveole, and furrow half the width of the foveole beneath, not over arched by hairs, rostrum 20-45mm. 2n=40
Distribution: in barish places in grassland, wasteland, on sandy or chalky soils and sand-dunes, endemic to Europe, Africa, Asia, now global.
Notes: Appears to be genetically isolated from other members of subsection Cicutaria. Professor Guittonneau was unable to form hybrids between Erodium cicutarium and Erodiums primulaceum, salzmannii, aethiopicum, sublyratum and moschatum
