Geranium Robertianum

bio:species:geranium_robertianum

Geranium robertianum — herb-Robert. Geraniaceae, order Geraniales. Characters: a slender, brittle plant whose stems and leaf-stalks flush red, strongly so in sun and on poor ground; leaves palmately cut into three or five stalked divisions, themselves deeply lobed, so the outline is lacy; flowers small, bright pink, five petals, borne in pairs; the fruit is the family's signature — a long beak that dries, splits from the base upward and flicks each seed away; the crushed plant has a sharp, distinctive scent. Setting: shaded hedge banks, woodland floors, walls, and stony ground and scree, where it will grow out of a crack with almost no soil. Range: Europe, western Asia and North Africa; introduced and locally abundant in North America. Naming: geranium from geranos, a crane, for the beaked fruit — 'cranesbill'; Robertianum is unsettled, read variously as Robert of Molesme or as a worn-down form of ruber, red, which is what the stems are.