Common Storksbill is an annual herb, 4-40 cm long, erect or straggling,
velvety, with reddish stems. Leaves are 2-5 cm long, 8-27 mm wide,
pinnately cut, velvety. Segments are pinnately cut into small acute lobes.
Stipules are broad lanceshaped-ovate, 2.5-5 mm long, ciliate, velvety.
Flower clusters are carried on 1.5-6.5 cm long stalks. They 2-8-flowered,
reflexed in fruit. Sepals are 3-4 mm long, up to 6 mm in fruit, ovate-
lanceshaped, glandular-velvety, margin membranous. Petals, scarcely
exceeding the sepals, are obovate, reddish-purple, wedge-shaped, claw
ciliate, apex 1-2-setose. Filaments (of functional stamens) are 2.5 mm
long, base dilated, sparsely velvety. Staminodes are shorter, lanceshaped,
hairless. Mericarps are 5.5 mm long, with bristle-like berect yellow
hairs. Fruit beak is about 4 cm long, which gives the plant its common
name. Common Storksbill is found in meadows, flood plains, gravel areas,
disturbed areas in parts of the Himalayas, at altitudes of 700-2200 m.
Flowering: June-July.
Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed in Pampore, Kashmir.
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The flower labeled Common Storksbill is ...