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Erodium cicutarium
Also called Heron's Bill, Stork's Bill, Alfilaria, Common Crowfoot, Common Erodium, Common Heron's Bill, Red Stem Filaree
A low-growing annual or biennial wildflower in the Geranium family that forms flat rosettes and bright pink flowers. It thrives in bare, sandy, open ground and tolerates dry soils thanks to its deep taproot.
Erodium cicutarium, also known as common stork's-bill, redstem filaree, redstem stork's bill or pinweed, is a herbaceous annual – or in warm climates, biennial – member of the family Geraniaceae of flowering plants. It is native to Macaronesia, temperate Eurasia and north and northeast Africa, and was introduced to North America in the eighteenth century, where it has since become naturalized, particularly in the deserts and arid grasslands of the southwestern United States. It is also naturalized elsewhere, including South America and southern Africa.
Erodium cicutarium has a very extensive native range. It includes all of Europe with the exception of Iceland. In Africa its native range extends across the north from Morocco to Egypt and also in Chad and Eritrea, but not in Sudan. It is also native in most of Asia according to Plants of the World Online with the exceptions of Southeast Asia, central China, and Mongolia. It now grows as an introduced plant in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and the eastern half of the Russian Far East. Elsewhere it has been introduced to North and South America, southern Africa and Tasmania.
The young leaves are edible raw or cooked. The whole plant is reportedly edible with a flavor similar to sharp parsley if picked young. According to John Lovell's Honey Plants of North America (1926), "the pink flowers are a valuable source of honey (nectar), and also furnish much pollen". Among the Zuni people, a poultice of chewed root is applied to sores and rashes and an infusion of the root is taken for stomachache.
Erodium alnifolium · Longbeak stork's bill · Shortfruit stork's bill · Three Lobed Stork's Bill · Erodium chrysanthum · Common stork's bill · Erodium glandulosum · Garden Stork's Bill · Musky stork's bill · Stork's bill
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Erodium cicutarium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
