Erodium moschatum

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Erodium moschatum
Erodium moschatum flower.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Geraniales
Family: Geraniaceae
Genus: Erodium
Species:
E. moschatum
Binomial name
Erodium moschatum

Erodium moschatum is a species of flowering plant in the geranium family known by the common names musk stork's-bill and whitestem filaree. This is a weedy annual or biennial herb which is native to much of Eurasia and North Africa but can be found on most continents where it is an introduced species.

Contents

Description

Musk stork's-bill is an annual monoecious herb which grows as a sprawling, procumbent to erect plant up to about 60 cm long or tall, with a musky smell when bruised. It is almost entirely covered with either simple or sticky glandular hairs except for the fruits and petals. The stems are green to purple in colour and bear alternate or opposite pinnate leaves up to about 10 cm long (up to 30 cm in very large plants). The leaf segments are serrated and lobed, but not deeply so: no more than about a quarter of the way to the midrib. The petioles are somewhat shorter than the blade, and have papery stipules up to 10 mm long at their base.

The leaflets of musk stork's-bill are generally only shallowly lobed. Erodium moschatum leaf.jpg
The leaflets of musk stork's-bill are generally only shallowly lobed.

The inflorescences are umbels of 6-12 flowers on peduncles up to 10 cm long. At the top of the peduncle are small papery bracts about 3 mm long. The individual flowers are actinomorphic and hermaphroditic, borne on short pedicels which elongate in fruit. There are 5 glandular-hairy sepals a few millimetres long and 5 pale purple petals about 7 mm long. There are also five stamens and five staminodes (sterile stamens) and just one style, with 5 stigma arms.

An umbel of musk stork's-bill, showing the peduncle, pedicels and papery bracts Erodium moschatum umbel.jpg
An umbel of musk stork's-bill, showing the peduncle, pedicels and papery bracts

The fruit is a schizocarp which breaks into 5 mericarps, each of which has a short (5 mm) basal segment containing one black seed, and a long (40 mm) beak that splits open at maturity to reveal a feathery appendage that enables the seeds to be dispersed by the wind. At the top of the basal segment there are two conspicuous pits with (unlike other stork's-bills) papillose glands inside. [1] [2]

Identification

Musk stork's-bill is distinguished from other British stork's-bills by its smell, its once-pinnate leaves and the glands in the apical pits on the fruit. [3]

The glands in the pits on the mericarp are a useful identification feature. Erodium moschatum glands.jpg
The glands in the pits on the mericarp are a useful identification feature.

Uses

Like Erodium cicutarium , the species is edible. [4]

Ecology

Several species of insects have been recorded on musk mallow, including the midge Dasineura erodiicola, which causes galls on the flowers. Two moths are recorded feeding on the leaves: the Setaceous Hebrew character and Thaumetopoea herculeana , as is the weevil Donus dauci and the green peach aphid.

Two types of mildew infest the leaves: Podosphaera erodii and Peronospora erodii, and pustules on the leaves can be caused by the rust Synchytrium papillatum.

Other pests include the leaf miner Agromyza nigrescens, the aphid Acyrthosiphon malvae, the leaf beetle Aphthona pallida, which feeds on the roots, and the weevil Zacladus exiguus, which bores into the root collar. [5]

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<i>Erodium maritimum</i> Species of flowering plant

Erodium maritimum, the sea stork's-bill, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Geraniaceae. It occurs on free-draining stony soils close to the sea and, very occasionally, in similar situations inland. Most of the world's population occurs in southern Britain and Brittany, but it is found in scattered locations around the coast of Europe as far as Corsica and Italy, and south to the Canary Isles.

<i>Erodium lebelii</i> Species of flowering plant

Erodium lebelii, sticky stork's-bill, is an annual plant in the family Geraniaceae. It occurs on sand dunes and heaths on the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of western Europe. Its taxonomic status is uncertain: some authorities consider it merely a variety or subspecies of common stork's-bill while others consider it to be the same as the north African species Erodium aethiopicum.

References

  1. Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (2009). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles (4th ed.). Suffolk: C&M Floristics. ISBN   978-1-5272-2630-2.
  3. Rose, Francis (2006). The Wild Flower Key. London: Frederick Warne. ISBN   978-0-7232-5175-0.
  4. Nyerges, Christopher (2016). Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America: More than 150 Delicious Recipes Using Nature's Edibles. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 81. ISBN   978-1-4930-1499-6.
  5. "Erodium moschatum – Plant Parasites of Europe". bladmineerders.nl. Retrieved 2024-05-24.