1-3-2019 MARXCHUQUERA, VALENCIA - MUSK STORK'S BILL (Erodium moschatum)

24-2-2019 PALMA DE GANDIA, VALENCIA - MUSK STORK'S BILL (Erodium moschatum)

2-3-2018 GANDIA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MUSK STORK'S BILL (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.

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.

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.