Erodium lebelii Jord. – “Sticky Storksbill”
Erodium lebelii is an annual; stems procumbent to 15 (-25)cm. plant covered in dense glandular hairs.
Leaves pinnate; leaflets ovate, sessile, ± pinnatifid, sticky glandular; lobes obtuse; very often has grains of sand stuck to the glandular hairs.
Inflorescence: flowers 2-4(5) per umbel, mostly less than 10mm, red-pink, pink or white, not spotted. Beak 1.8-2.4 cm; mericarp 4-5.5 mm; foveole small, wellmarked, not glandular, and without a furrow, over arched by hairs from main part of mericarp; awn spiral with 4-6 turns; cotyledons tri-lobed. 2n=20, 40
This can be distinguish from E. cicutarium by lack of furrow beneath pit, short spiral on awns, with only 4-6 turns and the fact that it often has grains of sand stuck to its glandular hairs!
Easily distinguished from Erodium aethiopicum by length of rostrum (30-55 mm in aethiopicum), short spiral on awns, (8-16 turns in aethiopicum) and being glandular hairy. E. lebelii is a much smaller plant than E. aethiopicum. Close to E. aethiopicum but genetically isolated: at best will only produce sterile hybrids with E. aethiopicum.
Distribution: found on maritime sand-dunes, Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, France, Ireland, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy
