Cranesbill
Encyclopedia
Geranium is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of 422 species of flowering annual
Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

, biennial
Biennial plant
A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. Usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming...

, and perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

s that are commonly known as the cranesbills. It is found throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, but mostly in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region. The long, palmately cleft leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are broadly circular in form. The flowers have 5 petals and are coloured white, pink, purple or blue, often with distinctive veining. Geraniums will grow in any soil as long as it is not waterlogged. Propagation
Plant propagation
Plant propagation is the process of creating new plants from a variety of sources: seeds, cuttings, bulbs and other plant parts. Plant propagation can also refer to the artificial or natural dispersal of plants.-Sexual propagation :...

 is by semi-ripe cuttings in summer, by seed, or by division in autumn or spring.

The genus name is derived from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 γέρανος, géranos, or γερανός, geranós, crane. The English name "cranesbill" derives from the appearance of the fruit capsule of some of the species. Species in the Geranium genus have a distinctive mechanism for seed dispersal. This consists of a beak-like column which springs open when ripe and casts the seeds some distance. The fruit capsule consists of five cells each containing one seed, joined to a column produced from the centre of the old flower. The common name cranesbill comes from the shape of the un-sprung column, which in some species is long and looks like the bill of a crane
Crane (bird)
Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...

. Many species in this genus do not have a long beak-like column.

Cranesbills are eaten by the larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 species including Brown-tail
Brown-tail
The brown-tail is a moth of the family Lymantriidae. It is distributed throughout Europe.The wings of this species are pure white, as is the body, apart from a tuft of brown hairs at the end of the abdomen. The brown coloration extends along most of the back of the abdomen in the male...

 and Mouse Moth
Mouse Moth
The Mouse Moth is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a very widespread species with a Holarctic distribution.This is a rather drab but distinctive species. The forewings are uniform dark brown with three blackish spots arranged in a triangle. The hindwings are buffish, darker towards the...

.



The species Geranium viscosissimum is considered to be protocarnivorous.

Confusion with Pelargoniums

Confusingly, "geranium" is also the common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

 of members of the genus Pelargonium
Pelargonium
Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 200 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as scented geraniums or storksbills. Confusingly, Geranium is the correct botanical name of a separate genus of related plants often called Cranesbills. Both Geranium...

(commonly known as 'storksbill' in distinction from 'cranesbill'), which are also in the Geraniaceae
Geraniaceae
Geraniaceae is a family of flowering plants placed in the order Geraniales. The family name is derived from the genus Geranium. It includes both the genus Geranium and the garden plants called geraniums, which modern botany classifies as genus Pelargonium, along with other related genera.There are...

 family. Linnaeus originally included all the species in one genus, Geranium, but they were later separated into two genera by Charles L’Héritier in 1789.

Gardeners and the horticultural trade often refer to true geraniums as "hardy geraniums", to distinguish them from the less hardy pelargoniums (generally grown as annuals in temperate climes), and most garden "geraniums" (without the 'hardy' appellation) are in fact pelargoniums (storksbills), as opposed to true geraniums (cranesbills).

Other former members of the genus are now classified in genus Erodium
Erodium
Erodium is a genus of the botanical family Geraniaceae. The genus includes about 60 species, for the most part originating in the Mediterranean or Western Asian regions...

, including the plants known as filarees in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

.

Structure

The shape of the flowers offers one way of distinguishing between the two genera Geranium and Pelargonium. Geranium flowers have five very similar petals, and are thus radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), whereas Pelargonium flowers have two upper petals which are different from the three lower petals, so that the flowers have a single plane of symmetry (zygomorphic).

Cultivation

See also the List of cranesbill species.


A number of geranium species are cultivated for their landscape value and for pharmaceutical products.
Some of the more commonly grown species include:
  • Geranium cinereum
    Geranium cinereum
    Geranium cinereum is a small, semi-evergreen perennial plant usually grown for low ground cover or in rockeries.They generally grow to 15cm in height with a spread of 30cm. Leaves are deeply divided and grey-green...

  • Geranium clarkei
    Geranium clarkei
    Geranium clarkei, called Clark's geranium, is a herbaceous species of plant in the Geraniaceae family. It is native to India and is cultivated for use in gardens in other parts of the world....

    (Clark's geranium)
  • Geranium dalmaticum
    Geranium dalmaticum
    Geranium dalmaticum, commonly called Dalmatian cranesbill, is a herbaceous species of plant in the Geraniaceae family. It is cultivated as a garden subject for its low mounding habit and soft mauve colored flowers....

  • Geranium endressii
    Geranium endressii
    Geranium endressii, commonly called Endres cranesbill or French crane's-bill, is a herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family....

  • Geranium fremontii (Fremont's geranium)
  • Geranium himalayense
    Geranium himalayense
    Geranium himalayense, commonly called Lilac cranesbill or Himalayan crane's-bill, is a herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family...

    often sold under Geranium grandiflorum
  • Geranium ibericum
    Geranium ibericum
    Geranium ibericum, commonly called Caucasian Cranesbill or Caucasus Geranium or Iberian Geranium, is a herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family. It is native from Western Asia, including Turkey and the Caucasus, and is cultivated as a garden subject. It has a dense mounding habit, and...

    (Caucasus geranium),
  • Geranium macrorrhizum
    Geranium macrorrhizum
    Geranium macrorrhizum is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant species in the genus Geranium. Its common names include bigroot geranium, Bulgarian geranium, zdravetz and rock crane's-bill.-Cultivation and uses:...

    (Bigroot cranesbill or Bigroot geranium)
  • Geranium maculatum
    Geranium maculatum
    Geranium maculatum, the Spotted Geranium, Wood Geranium, or Wild Geranium is a woodland perennial plant native to eastern North America, from southern Manitoba and southwestern Quebec south to Alabama and west to Oklahoma and South Dakota...

    (Wild geranium)
  • Geranium x magnificum
    Geranium x magnificum
    Geranium × magnificum is a cranesbill that is the result of hybridisation between Geranium platypetalum and Geranium ibericum. It is commonly called Purple Cranesbill....

    (Showy geranium)
  • Geranium phaeum
    Geranium phaeum
    Geranium phaeum, commonly called Dusky Cranesbill, Mourning Widow or Black Widow, is a herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family. It is native from southern, central, and western Europe, and is cultivated as a garden subject. It has dark violet colored flowers....

  • Geranium platypetalum
    Geranium platypetalum
    Geranium platypetalum, commonly called Broad-petaled geranium, is a herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family. It is native to Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Russian Federation, and is cultivated as a garden subject, under a number of different cultivar names. It has...

    (Broad-petaled geranium)
  • Geranium pratense
    Geranium pratense
    Geranium pratense, the Meadow Cranesbill, is a species of plant in the Geraniaceae family. The leaves are deeply divided, divided into 7-9 lobes and 3-6 inch wide. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, but is cultivated and naturalized elsewhere.-References:*...

    (Meadow cranesbill)
  • Geranium psilostemon
    Geranium psilostemon
    Geranium psilostemon, commonly called Armenian crane's-bill, is a herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family. It is native from Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Russian Federation, and is cultivated as a garden subject, and a number of different cultivars exist. It has glowing reddish...

  • Geranium sanguineum
    Geranium sanguineum
    Geranium sanguineum, commonly called Bloody Cranesbill or Bloody Geranium, is a perennial herbaceous plant species in the Geraniaceae family...

    (Bloody cranesbill)
  • Geranium sylvaticum

All the above species are perennials and generally winter hardy plants, grown for their attractive flowers and foliage. They are long lived and most have a mounding habit, with palmately lobed foliage. Some species have spreading rhizomes. They are normally grown in part shade to full sun, in well draining but moisture retentive soils, that are rich in humus. Other perennial species that are grown for their flowers and foliage include: G. argenteum, G. eriostemon, G. farreri, G. nodosum, G. procurrens, G. pylzowianum, G. renardii, G. traversii, G. tuberosum, G. versicolor, G. wallichianum and G. wlassovianum. Some of these are not winter hardy in cold areas and are grown in specialized gardens like rock gardens. Geranium x. 'Johnson's Blue' is a hybridisation between G himalayense (Southwestern China), with G pratense (European Meadow Crane'sbill).

See also

  • List of cranesbill species
  • Pelargonium graveolens
    Pelargonium graveolens
    Pelargonium graveolens is a species in the Pelargonium genus, which is indigenous to various parts of southern Africa, and in particular South Africa. It is often called geranium as it falls within the plant family Geraniaceae, although more correctly, it is referred to as Pelargonium. This...

    , from which Geranium essential oil is distilled

External links

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