Tag Archives: Geranium pratense

Crane’s-bill vs stork’s-bill

29 Sunday Oct 2023

Posted by in flowers, wildflowers

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It occurred to me today, after seeing both Common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium) and Meadow crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense) still flowering locally, to wonder what the difference is between stork’s-bills and crane’s-bills. According to my Flora Britannica, it’s to do with the length of the birds’ bills, i.e. the seed cases of the stork’s-bills are longer than those of the crane’s-bills. The photos below show the relative differences, Meadow crane’s-bill above, Common stork’s-bill below.

231029 meadow crane's-bill vs common stork's-bill (1)

And because they both have lovely flowers, albeit of very different sizes (Common stork’s-bill is a tiny plant compared to Meadow crane’s bill), here they are, again Meadow crane’s-bill above, Common stork’s-bill below.

231029 meadow crane's-bill vs common stork's-bill (2)

320/365 Jingling Johnny

16 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers

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As I made my way down the zigzag path to Cardiff Bay this morning, I was surprised to find not one but three Meadow crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense) plants still flowering. And, though its leaves usually turn ‘a rich red-brown’ in the autumn, these were still looking green and lush. Perhaps they don’t change until the frosts come – although it’s now late autumn, our weather has been very wet but mostly quite mild this year.

191116 meadow crane's-bill (1)

My Flora Britannica says that one of this plant’s vernacular names is Jingling Johnny, though it gives no reason for the name. Plantlife’s website includes that same name but also several others: Blue basins, Gipsy, Grace of God and Loving Andrews. Such a variety of vernacular names just shows how common this plant once was: with the industrialisation of agriculture, sadly it is now much less so.

A confusion of geraniums

05 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by in flowers, nature, wildflowers

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I’ve always loved geraniums, of the easy-to-grow vibrant-colour-in-a-terracotta-pot pretend-you’re-in-the-Mediterranean variety, but here in Britain there are wild native geraniums that are just as gorgeous but rather tricky to identify. This seems partly to be because you can’t always tell those that are truly wild from those that are garden escapees, cultivated from birds’ droppings or windblown seeds. And the local geraniums also seem to hybridise easily – check out this chart – so, when I look up the various identification guides, the flowers and leaves I see don’t quite fit with what the books and websites show.

Here, then, are some photos of geraniums, which may or may not include Meadow crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense) and Cut-Leaved crane’s-bill (Geranium dissectum) and Druce’s crane’s-bill (Geranium x oxonianum), or possibly something else entirely!