Plant Name
Scientific Name: Erodium cicutarium
Common Names: Redstem Stork's Bill, Filaree, Heron-bill, Redstem Filaree
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual, Biennial
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized weed is native to southern Europe.
Habitat: Desert, Upland. It grows in flat, open, disturbed areas.
Flower Color: Pinkish violet
Flowering Season: Winter (late), Spring
Height: Prostrate, sprawling to 15 inches (38 cm) wide
Description: The flowers are 1/4 inch (0.6 cm) wide and have 5 petals and 5 sepals. The developing green seeds look like a stork bill. The mature seeds are point-tipped and have a coiling and uncoiling tail that self-buries them when they get wet. The leaves are in a flat basal rosette and are dark green and pinnate with pinnately cleft leaflets. The stems are reddish and hairy.
The seeds can be a hazard to dogs and other animals. Because the seeds have a sharp pointed tip, coil themselves up, and can move and try to bury themselves when they get wet, they can become tangled in a dog's fur and then penetrate its skin in an attempt to bury themselves.
Special Characteristics
Poisonous – This otherwise edible plant can accumulate toxic levels of nitrate from the soil.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Geraniales
Family: Geraniaceae – Geranium family
Genus: Erodium L'Hér. ex Aiton – stork's bill
Species: Erodium cicutarium (L.) L'Hér. ex Aiton – redstem stork's bill
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