Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Wood Cranesbill
Geranium sylvaticum
- Also written: Wood Crane’s-bill
- Family: Geranium Family – Geraniaceae
- Growing form: Perennial herb. Rootstock stout, horizontal.
- Height: 25–50 cm (10–20 in.). Stem cylindrical (not angled), hairy (upper part glandular-hairy).
- Flower: Regular (actinomorphic), large, 15–35 mm (0.6–1.4 in.) wide. Petals free, 5, reddish-purple to white. Sepals free, 5, glandular-hairy, with membranous margins, tipped by a short bristle. Stamens 10. Pistil of 5 fused carpels, style solitary, 5 stigmas. Flowers in pairs, stalks densely glandular-hairy.
- Leaves: Basal leaves long-stalked, stem leaves stalkless. Blade roundish in outline, palmately lobed and veined, lobes broad, large-toothed, hairy. Stipules brown, hairless, sharp-pointed.
- Fruit: A glandular-hairy, five-parted schizocarp.
- Habitat: Rich broadleaf and spruce forests, waterside scrub, moist meadows, field margins, waysides.
- Flowering time: June–July.
The wood cranesbill occurs throughout Finland, although it is concentrated in rich areas and avoids poor soils. In Southern Finland it is most abundant in rich mixed forests and damp meadows. In the north it is confined to the most luxuriant forests, and is one of the species indicating eutrophic conditions in mires.
The wood cranesbill is a very variable species. The flower colour varies so that individuals with the deepest purple flowers are mostly concentrated in South Finland, and flowers with lighter colours in Kainuu and northwards. The corolla of the wood crane’s-bill is large, petals clearly longer than the sepals. In this sense it differs from some other cranesbills which have smaller flowers.
