320/365 Jingling Johnny

16 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers

Tags

British wildflowers, geranium, Geranium pratense, Meadow crane's-bill

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.

153/365 The geranium and the bee

02 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, Bombus pascuorum, British bees, Common carder bee, garden escape, geranium

190602 geranium and bee

This photo was actually taken yesterday because, being the occasional numpty that I am, I didn’t take my camera with me when I went out for a stroll and some groceries this afternoon, after the rain had cleared. The bee is a Common carder (Bombus pascuorum) but I’m not sure about the geranium. Although it’s growing beneath a hedgerow in a rural lane, I think it’s a garden escape, as its description doesn’t fit with the native geraniums in my plant book. Whatever it is, it’s obviously tasty … if you’re a bee.

More crane’s-bills and a stork’s-bill

13 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#FloralFriday, British flora, Common Stork's-bill, Crane's-bill, Cut-Leaved Cranesbill, geranium, Meadow crane's-bill, Pencilled crane’s-bill, Stork's-bill, wildflowers

It’s Floral Friday so I thought we’d take a look at a few more of the beautiful Crane’s-bill family and one of their cousins, a Stork’s-bill. I think you’ll agree that they’re all rather lovely.

Cut-Leaved Cranesbill (Geranium dissectum)

Meadow Crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense)

Pencilled crane’s-bill (Geranium versicolor)

Common stork’s bill (Erodium cicutarium)

Some crane’s bills

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British wildflowers, crane's bills, geranium, Geranium lucidum, Geranium Robertianum, Geranium rotundifolium, Herb Robert, Round-leaved crane's-bill, Shining crane's-bill, spring flowers, spring wildflowers

The word geranium comes from the Greek geranos, meaning crane, so named because of the likeness of the plant’s seed case to the bill of the bird. Thus, in the plant world, the crane’s-bills are the wild geraniums.

180511 round-leaved crane's-bill

’Tis the time the geraniums begin to bloom and I’m trying to learn which is which, so I thought I’d share a few I’ve found during recent perambulations. The first is the Round-leaved crane’s-bill (Geranium rotundifolium).

180511 herb robert

This next is the one most people can name. It seems to grow almost anywhere and makes even a rubbish heap look beautiful: Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum).

180511 shining crane's-bill

At a quick glance, this Shining crane’s-bill (Geranium lucidum) looks a lot like Herb Robert … and then you notice how different the leaves are.

Floral Friday: Glorious geraniums

10 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Auckland Domain, geranium, Geranium maderense, Giant herb-Robert, Madeira cranesbill, Wintergarden

170310-geranium-maderense-1

No, summer has not come early to Wales – these photos of gorgeous geraniums were taken in New Zealand, at the Wintergarden in Auckland’s Domain, in October 2014. I think these are Geranium maderense, also known as Giant herb-Robert and the Madeira cranesbill (their original homeland was the island of Madeira). They are the largest of the many species of geranium and, as you can see, their pollen is much favoured by bees and flies. My photo of the blue-bottle’s bottom protruding from the flower always makes me smile. Happy Floral Friday!

A confusion of geraniums

05 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Cut-Leaved crane’s-bill, Druce’s crane’s-bill, geranium, Geranium dissectum, Geranium pratense, Geranium x oxonianum, Meadow crane's-bill

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!