Erodium lebelii

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 the 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

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