Erodium nanum Blatter

Annual to about 4cm high, stemless, all except the flower white hairy with hairs thickened at the base; root vertical, 5cm long, crowded with stipules at the crown.

Leaves: leaves all basal, many, oblong in outline, pinnatisect, 4cm long and 1.3cm wide, leaflets entire or pinnatisect; pinnules linear or oblong, acute, without intercalary lobes; petioles 1-1.4cm long; stipules lanceolate-acuminate, glabrescent, at the base adnate to the petiole.

Inflorescence: Peduncles basal, ascending, slender, about 2 cm long and with 2 flowers; bracts 4, paired, 2 small, all broad triangular and acute, the larger1.5 mm long, membranous; pedicels 2-3 mm long, without glands, slender, in fruit slightly thickened, 7 mm. long, bent back; sepals narrowly oblong, nearly 4mm by 1mm broad, with 3 prominent nerves, white-margined, densely covered with white hairs, especially in the lower part, and a crystalline arista 0.5mm long; flowers 9mm across; petals flesh-coloured equal, not spotted, 3 veined, slightly longer than the sepals, oblong and rounded; pistil hirsute.

Fruit: rostrum 25 mm long, covered in adpressed hairs.

2n=

Distribution: endemic to Pakistan; N Waziristan, west of Datta Khel Fort in gravel plain