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Common Storksbill
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Common Storksbill
ative Photo: Tabish
Common name: Common Storksbill, Redstem Filaree, heron's-bill
Botanical name: Erodium cicutarium    Family: Geraniaceae (Geranium family)
Synonyms: Geranium cicutarium

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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