Common Stork's Bill

Erodium Cicutarium

Common names: Redstem filaree, Redstem stork's bill, Common stork's bill.

This pretty 'weed' is an herbaceous annual, and in warm climates a biennial member of the Geranium Family of flowering plants. It is native to the Mediterranean Basin and was introduced to North America in the eighteenth century.

The stems bear bright pink flowers, arranged in loose cluster, and often have dark spots on the bases. The leaves are pinnate and fern-like, and the long seed-pod, shaped very much like the bill of a stork, bursts open in a spiral when ripe, sending the seeds (which have little feathery parachutes attached) into the air. Fun for all. I know you've done it, barely touched the tip of one of those spines and watched it curl back in fear.

Here's where it gets tricky:
The seeds of this annual are a species collected by various species of harvester ants.

It is a food plant for the larvae of the Brown Argus butterfly.

The entire plant is edible with a flavor similar to sharp parsley if picked young.

If I watch them carefully, maybe I'll put a couple plants aside for the ants, the butterflies and me.