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Erodium
cicutarium
(Filaree) Geraniaceae (Geranium Family) Semi-desert, foothills, montane. Meadows,
openings, shrublands, lawns. Spring, summer, fall. Filaree is a very common plant of roadsides, fields, and the semi-desert, and it often carpets large areas with bright, tiny, pink flowers. Fall rains sprout the seeds and the plant basal rosette then lies dormant through the winter until spring warmth and moisture brings it into full leaf and flower -- although warm late fall weather can also bring flowers. Plants bloom profusely for many weeks in the spring and continue blooming to a lesser degree into the fall. Flowers open with the morning sun, and depending on how hot the day is, they close early or late in the afternoon to reopen the next day. The deeply cleft, fern-like leaves and deep roots have a strong pungent smell that I enjoy as I walk across patches of the plant on my property. |
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Erodium
cicutarium
(Filaree) Geraniaceae (Geranium Family) Semi-desert, foothills, montane. Meadows,
openings, shrublands, lawns. Spring, summer, fall. Linnaeus named this species Geranium cicutarium in 1753 and it was renamed Erodium cicutarium in 1789. The long, narrow, pointed Heron/Stork/Crane's bill shaped seed pods give rise to the genus name, "Erodios", from the Greek for "Heron". "Cicutarium" is for the resemblance of the leaves of Filaree to those of the poisonous Water Hemlock, Cicuta douglasii. (Conium maculatum now bears the common name of "Poison Hemlock". Both Cicuta and Conium plants are extremely poisonous.) |
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Erodium
cicutarium
(Filaree) Geraniaceae (Geranium Family) Semi-desert, foothills, montane. Meadows,
openings, shrublands, lawns. Spring, summer, fall. |
