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.
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.
