French Crane's-bill - Geranium endressii

Description

Medium to tall hairy plant. Leaves rounded or pentagonal in outline, divided to more than halfway into five broadly oval, irregularly toothed lobes. Flowers pink, 24 to 28 mm, with paler veins or veins of the same colour. Flowers generally in pairs, petals not or only slightly notched.

Similar Species

Geranium versicolor (white to pale pink petals with darker veins) or the hybrid Geranium x oxonianum (pale to deep pink petals, with or without darker veins) 

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Veins pale or same colour as ground colour of petals

Habitat

Often found as an escape from cultivation and established on roadside verges etc. Quite often close to habitation.

When to see it

Flowers in June and July.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Widespread and fairly frequent in the wild in Britain.

VC55 Status

Infrequent as an established wild plant in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 2 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
French Crane's-bill
Species group:
flowering plant
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Geraniales
Family:
Geraniaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
9
First record:
26/06/2015 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
24/06/2017 (Harris, Steve)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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Latest images

Latest records

Photo of the association

Agromyza nigrescens

The larva of the Agromyzid fly Agromyza nigrescens mines the leaves of Geranium and Erodium species. The start of the mine is corridor-like and usually follows the leaf margin, before widening considerably into a secondary blotch, with irregular sides. Primary and secondary feeding lines are clearly visible and frass is mostly in large clumps.

Photo of the association

Aceria geranii

The mite Aceria geranii causes galls on the leaves of Geranium species.  The leaves are paler than usual, thickened and rolled into a mophead at the shoot tip. The mites live inside the leaves, and are minute, whitish and worm-like; they cannot be seen with the naked eye but are just discernible using a stereo microscope.

Photo of the association

Uromyces geranii

Uromyces geranii is a rust fungus that galls the leaves of various Geranium and Erodium species (Crane's-bills and Stork's-bills); there is no host-plant alternation.  Aecia are orange, on leaf undersides and petiole; later pale brown uredinia and darker telia appear on the leaf underside.