Cranesbill

Cranesbill, the English name for the genus Geranium, so called from the long beak of the fruit formed by a central prolongation of the axis (carpophore) in grooves in which lie the styles of the five carpels. The genus comprises about 100 species, mostly herbs, natives of temperate regions, especially sea-shores and sandy regions, about a dozen species being British. Their stems are swollen at the nodes, their leaves palmate in venation or lobings, and their flowers polysymmetric and pentamerous, with imbricate sepals, and ten stamens united at the base of their filaments. When ripe, the five carpels separate as indehiscent cocci, the styles coiling elastically from the carpophore. The genus gives its name to the order Geraniaceae.