Hedgerow Crane's-bill

Hedgerow Crane's-bill - Geranium pyrenaicum

Description

Medium height hairy plant with erect or ascending stems. Leaves rounded in outline, divided to just over half-way into 5 to 7 wedges. Flowers purple to mauve-pink in pairs forming lax clusters, the petals deeply notched and 7 - 10mm,  and with 10 anthers . Fruit hairy on densely hairy deflexed stalks.

Similar Species

Geranium molle and Geranium pusillum

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Larger flowers, petals 7-10mm

Habitat

Meadows, hedgerows, waste and cultivated ground.

When to see it

June to August.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Less common than many of the other Crane's-bills and mainly found in the southern half of Britain.

VC55 Status

Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 56 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records

Photo of the association

Agromyza nigrescens

The larva of the Agromyzid fly Agromyza nigrescens mines the leaves of Geranium and Erodium species. The start of the mine is corridor-like and usually follows the leaf margin, before widening considerably into a secondary blotch, with irregular sides. Primary and secondary feeding lines are clearly visible and frass is mostly in large clumps.

Photo of the association

Aceria geranii

The mite Aceria geranii causes galls on the leaves of Geranium species.  The leaves are paler than usual, thickened and rolled into a mophead at the shoot tip. The mites live inside the leaves, and are minute, whitish and worm-like; they cannot be seen with the naked eye but are just discernible using a stereo microscope.

Photo of the association

Uromyces geranii

Uromyces geranii is a rust fungus that galls the leaves of various Geranium and Erodium species (Crane's-bills and Stork's-bills); there is no host-plant alternation.  Aecia are orange, on leaf undersides and petiole; later pale brown uredinia and darker telia appear on the leaf underside.