The Stork’s Beak of the Apennines

Habit: A perennial herb of small stature, up to 20 cm tall. Leaves: Basal, persistent and arranged in a rosette, with a characteristic grey-green colour. They have a polygonal outline, a cordate base and appressed hairs on both surfaces. The blade is divided into 5-7 main segments, each further divided into 3-5 lobes. Petioles long, up to 10 cm, also hairy. Flowers: Solitary or at most paired. Sepals smooth with membranous margins and ending in a 1 mm mucro. Petals vivid violet, spreading-erect, with a slightly notched apex and a ciliate base. The reproductive apparatus consists of 10 stamens with purplish filaments and yellow pollen. Fruits: An elongated, slender schizocarp strongly resembling the beak of a crane or stork, evolved for mechanical seed projection at maturity. Flowering: June-July.

Chorological type: Italian endemic. Distribution: Endemic to the central-southern Apennines, with populations ranging from Lazio to Calabria. Habitat: It colonises high-altitude stony pastures, screes and rock crevices between 1600 and 2000 m above sea level.

Generic name (Geranium): From the Greek geranos, meaning “crane”, chosen because of the remarkable resemblance of the ripe fruit to the beak of this bird. Specific name (austroapenninum): From the Latin australis, “southern”, and apenninus, “Apennine”, precisely indicating the range of this endemic confined to the mountains of southern Italy.