Geranium molle
Common name
dove’s foot cranesbill
Family
Geraniaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
GERMOL
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Common weed of wasteland, grassland, and open places within coastal to montane forest.
Features
Annual herb to 450 mm tall; stem usually branched from base, pilose, with long eglandular hairs 1.0-1.7 mm long and short glandular/eglandular hairs < 0.5 mm long. Basal rosette leaves persistent; lamina 9-4 x 9-52 mm, divided for 0.5-0.75 of its length, pilose, with eglandular appressed hairs; segments 7-9, usually 3(-4)-lobed at apex; lower cauline leaves alternate; petioles to 140 mm, with patent, long eglandular hairs 1.0-1.5 mm long and short glandular/eglandular hairs < 0.5 mm long; stipules 6-9 x 1.5-4.0 mm, ovate-lanceolate, sometimes lobed, abaxially eglandular pilose, glabrous adaxially. Bracts 2-3 x 1.3-1.5 mm, pilose with eglandular hairs on abaxial surface and on the margin, glabrous adaxially; peduncles 5-80 mm long, eglandular pilose (hairs 1.0-1.8 mm long) with short (< 0.5 mm) glandular/eglandular hairs; pedicels 5-15 mm, pilose, with eglandular patent hairs 1.0-1.8 mm, and short (< 0.5 mm) glandular/eglandular hairs. Sepals (1-)2.5-5.5(-6) x (0.9-)1.2-2.1(-2.5) mm, mucronulate, with scarious margins 0.1-0.2 mm wide, with eglandular hairs 1.0-1.5 mm long and some shorter (< 0.5 mm) eglandular/glandular hairs on the abaxial side, glabrous on the adaxial side. Petals (3-)4.5-8.5(-10.5) x (1.5-)2.0-5.0-(7.0) mm, emarginate (notch 1.0-2.5 mm deep), with short claw, bright purple. Stamens 10, filaments 4-5 mm, lanceolate, glabrous except for few cilia on the proximal half; anthers 0.7-1.5 x 0.3-0.5 mm, purple. Gynoecium 5-6 mm long; stigma purple. Fruit 8-14 mm long; mericarps 1.8-2.1 x 1.2-1.4 mm, transversely wrinkled, without longitudinal rib, covering the seed completely, glabrous on the surface, with a few ciliae at the base; rostrum 6-11 mm long, with a narrowed apex 1-3 mm, pilose (with erect-patent eglandular hairs ca. 0.3 mm long); stigmatic remnant c.1-2 mm long, with 5 pilose lobes. Seeds 1.4-1.8 x 1.0-1.2 mm, brownish.
Flower colours
Violet/Purple
Year naturalised
1852
Origin
Temperate Eurasia E. to Himalaya, N. Africa, Macronesia
Etymology
geranium: From the Greek geranos ‘crane’, the fruit of the plant resembling the head and beak of this bird, hence the common name cranesbill.