Erodium aethiopicum

Annual or biennial caulescent herb, 3.5 to 45cm, often making a sizable plant, to 1.2m across or more, with fine branched roots. Stems glabrous to somewhat hairy, with eglandular hairs and glandular hairs, and rarely some sessile glands.

Leaves 2-26 cm, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate; usually bipinnatisect without intercalary lobes, glabrescent or with ± few eglandular hairs, with some small glands, not glandular-sticky; main segments 7-15, from pinnatifid to pinnatisect, with ultimate lobes rather obtuse; stipules 0.8-7.1 mm, ± triangular, membranaceous, glabrous or occasionally with some eglandular hairs on the abaxial face, ciliated, whitish or purple.

Inflorescence. Umbels few flowered 2-6(7); first umbel from centre of flat rosette, then flowering stems (thin and tough) grow out and become more branched; 3-7 bracts, 1-3mm free or joined at the base, whitish or reddish; sepals 3-6mm (5-8mm in fruit), white-hairy with a short mucro; petals 4-10 x 2-5mm, ± similar, pink to violet; nectaries dark purple; staminodes 1-2.5mm, glabrous, whitish or pink; stamen filaments 2-3.5mm, wider and hairy at base, pink to lilac; anthers purple; pollen yellow; stigmas dark purple. Flowers (February) March to June.

Fruit 33-60mm; mericarp 4-5.5mm, brown; foveole eglandular, rather shallow, edged with rigid fibres, no furrow. Long spire to seed with 8 – 16 turns; 2n=20, 40

Distribution: endemic to coastal regions of west and southwest Europe and North Africa in pine forests with sandy soils, maritime and fluvial sands, 0-1500m