Erodium medeense Batt.
Erodium medeense is a perennial species from Algeria; stems stout; everywhere hispid, with long eglandular hairs, grey, retrorse below, spreading or erect.
Leaves: Leaves entire; lower leaves on long petioles, thick, outline ovate, 3-lobed, middle lobe 3-lobed; upper leaves sessile, trilobate-serrate, all everywhere hispid, edges ciliate; stipules papery, large elongate.
Inflorescence: Umbel bracts membranous, ovate-suborbicular, obtuse, joined into 2 sheets; flowers 4-5cm across, pale rose; sepals sub-eglandular, apex hispid, oblong-elliptic, obtuse, mucronate, outside nearly equally 7-nerved; muco more than 2 mm; petals 3x longer than sepals, not equal, upper 2 shorter, bases spotted and marked black, all petals linear, at the claw shortly ciliate; fertile stamen filaments without teeth.
Fruit: Rostrum 8-12cm; mericarp 10-13mm, thick, hispid: foveole without a fold below. 2n=20
Distribution: endemic to Algeria at Nado de Medea, Ben Chicao; grows in sand derived from Miocene sandstones which nourish a flora similar, often identical to maritime sands where E. munbyanum lives.
