Erodium manescavii Cosson.
Erodium manescavii is a perennial stemless herb, 25-50cm.
Leaves all basal, green, hairy and soft, with lamina 6.5-12.5cm long, ovate-lanceolate, pinnate, with no intercalary leaflets; leaflets 7-11, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite, with teeth acute to subacute; pedicel 4-9.5cm; stipules 2.5-18mm, linear-lanceolate.
Inflorescence: Peduncles from the crown, to 40cm long, bearing umbels of 5-15 flowers; Bracts 2-5, 8-15mm joined to at least ⅔ of their length, green, narrowly membranaceous; sepals 8-9.5mm; mucro 1.7-2.9mm; petals 9-20mm, dark magenta, upper 2 with whitish blotch and feathered and with darker veins, covering ⅓ -– ½ of the petal; nectaries brownish to almost black, staminodes 2.6-2.9mm, pink-purple; stamen filaments 3-4.5mm pink-purple; anthers purple; pollen orange; stigmas dark purple
Fruit: Beak 5-7.5cm; mericarp 8-10.5mm, brown; foveole without glands, without furrow. 2n=40
Distribution: endemic to France, Western Pyrenees, in the Aspe, Ossau and Soule; Spain: Valle de Bertizarana; heathland and grassland on limestone soils.
Identification: E. manescavii is a much larger, courser plant than both E. castellanum and E. carvifolium. The larger bract size is a useful character.
Notes: In cultivation will make fertile hybrids with E. castellanum but will not with E. carvifolium. Most plants offered in nurseries under either E. castellanum or E. manescavii are this hybrid.
