Geranium phaeum - Dusky Crane's-bill (Geraniaceae)

Dusky Crane's-bill growing in the Triglav National Park in
Slovenia

For year's I have grown nursery-bought lookalikes of how I imagined Dusky Crane's-bill should be, but the real thing found growing in the wild outshines them all. This is a lovely plant and the flowers are larger and showier than I expected.

The common name of crane's-bill refers to the sharp, beak-like shape of the seeds which appear once the flowers have died back. The flowers are a deep, dusky purple and are present from May until the end of July. The plant grows in open meadows, on roadside verges and on damp forest and woodland edges.

Dusky Crane's-bill is found throughout much of Europe, but in the UK it is mostly found in the vicinity of gardens from which it has escaped and become naturalised.

The specimen on this page whas photographed in Slovenia, beside Lake Bled, in July.