DESKTOP 2604 - STORK'S BILL

Erodium malacoides is a species of Spring-flowering plant in the geranium family known by the common names Mediterranean stork's bill, soft stork's-bill and oval heron's bill. This is a weedy annual or biennial herb which is native to much of Eurasia and North Africa but can be found on most continents where it is an introduced species.

The young plant grows a number of ruffled green leaves radially outward flat against the ground from a knobby central stem. The stem may eventually reach half a metre in height with more leaves on long, hairy petioles. It bears small flowers with fuzzy, soft spine-tipped sepals and five lavender to magenta petals. The fruit is green with a glandular body about half a centimetre long and a long, pointed style two to three centimetres in length.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1911 - PELARGONIUM

Pelargoniums are in their most glorious prime now in Melbourne and it's a bumper year for them also.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1849 - ROSE GERANIUM

Pelargonium graveolens is an uncommon Pelargonium species native to the Cape Provinces and the Northern Provinces of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It is in the subgenus Pelargonium along with Pelargonium crispum, Pelargonium tomentosum and Pelargonium capitatum.

Pelargonium graveolens is an erect, multi-branched shrub, that grows up to 1.5 m and has a spread of 1 m. The leaves are deeply incised, velvety and soft to the touch (due to glandular hairs). The flowers vary from pale pink to almost white and the plant flowers from August to January. The leaves may be strongly rose-scented, although the leaf shape and scent vary. Some plants are very strongly scented and others have little or no scent. Some leaves are deeply incised and others less so, being slightly lobed like P. capitatum.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1619 - BLUE GERANIUMS

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' was the first of the brilliant blue geraniums to catch gardeners' eyes. The Royal Horticultural Society gave it the Award of Garden Merit (AGM). The blue of its flowers is hard to photograph and is always more startling when you actually see the plant. The flower stalks can grow quite tall and will droop under the weight of the blossoms. Most gardeners don't bother to stake them, since it is still an attractive plant, even with its floppy habit.

The flowers should be cut back after the first bloom, to get sporadic repeat blooms. Often the whole plant can begin to look scraggly and a good shearing is needed to totally rejuvenate it. 'Johnson's Blue' geranium is drought tolerant. It blooms best in full sun, but appreciates some afternoon shade in hot, dry areas. It's very disease resistant and a magnet for bees and butterflies.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1318 - GERANIUMS

Geraniums are really in the genus Pelargonium and pelargoniums in the genus Geranium! They both are classified in the family Geraniaceae.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 1165 - GERANIUM LEAVES

Leaves of the wild geranium, Geranium sanguineum, family Geraniaceae.

This post is part of the Friday Greens meme.

DESKTOP 891 - FILAREE

Erodium moschatum is a species of flowering plant in the geranium family (Geraniaceae) known by the common names musk stork's-bill and whitestem filaree. This is a weedy annual or biennial herb which is native to much of Eurasia and North Africa but can be found on most continents where it is an introduced species.

The young plant starts with a flat rosette of compound leaves, each leaf up to 15 centimeters long with many oval-shaped highly lobed and toothed leaflets along a central vein which is hairy, white, and stemlike. The plant grows to a maximum of about half a meter in height with plentiful fuzzy green foliage. The small flowers have five sepals behind five purple or lavender petals, each petal just over a centimeter long. The filaree fruit has a small, glandular body with a long green style up to 4 centimeters in length.

This is widely known as a common weed of gardens, roadsides, disturbed sites, waste areas, crops, and pastures. However, it also grows in natural areas, such as grasslands and open woodlands, and is sometimes regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria. It appears on some local and regional environmental weed lists in this state (e.g. in Banyule Shire and in the Goulburn Broken Catchment), is an invasive weed of woodlands on granitic hills, and is also present in conservation areas (e.g. Brisbane Ranges National Park). It has also been described as an invasive coloniser of grasslands in South Australia, and is widespread in conservation areas in this state (e.g. Cleland Conservation Park, Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park, Coorong National Park, Belair National Park and Para Wirra Recreation Park). It has also been recorded in conservation areas in Tasmania (e.g. Greens Beach/Kelso Coastal Reserve and Tasman National Park).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,

and also part of the Friday Greens meme.