Erodium cyrenaicum (Pamp.)Guitt.
Clade I; Subclade 1; Subgenus Erodium; Section Erodium
Perennial; root a thinnish tap-root, with small round tubers; sparsely leafy annual stems to 50cm.
Leaves glabrescent, entire, but basal leaves cut to the midrib;
Inflorescence: Umbels of 4-8 scentless flowers 3-3.5cm across, pink?; sepals hairy on upper surface, with no mucro
Fruit: Mericarp glabrous, 5-10mm; beak c8cm. 2n=20 Guitt.
Differs from E. crassifolium in having pinnatisect leaves not pinnatifid, and larger flowers (petals are longer).
Distribution: Africa; endemic to Cyrenaica (ie. Libya) in ‘terra rossa’ in North East Libya among very barren sandstone ‘butts’
First Published in Proc. Int. Gre. Symp., P76 (1990)
Synonym:
Erodium hirtum var. cyrenaicum Pamp. in Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s., 23: 279 (1916)