Geranium lucidum (Shiny Crane's-Bill)

This project collects observations of Geranium lucidum (Shiny Crane's-Bill) in California for the purpose of facilitating identification and preventing misidentification of this species in iNaturalist.

Photo tips:

• It’s important to get a picture of the entire plant.
• It's also helpful to get close-up pictures of the face of the flowers, sepals, leaves, and fruits, if present.
• If there are multiple plants in the picture, it’s helpful to crop your photo to focus on the plant of interest.

How to identify Geranium lucidum:

• Stems: Stems are reddish, brittle, fleshy, and hairless. The whole plant has a tendency to turn red.
• Leaves: Leaves are round or kidney-shaped and glossy, especially later in the season. They are palmately-lobed or divided bluntly to about two-thirds of their depth, sometimes with short hairs on the upper surface.
• Flowers: Small, pink, 5-petaled flowers grow in pairs. Petals are rounded and bright pink with long bases and flat blades. The five sepals are sharply keeled (i.e. they stick out) with noticeable cross-ribs.
• Fruits: The fruits are beaked capsules, ridged and slightly hairy (at least on the edges). They split open into five parts. The seeds are smooth.
• Habitat: This plant is usually found in well-shaded woodlands and in forest openings. It is sometimes found growing with its close cousin G. robertianum. Although this plant does well in disturbed sites such as roadsides, it can also invade and overwhelm high quality native habitat, both in forests and open grasslands.
• Flowering time: May to August.

Similar Species:

• Geranium robertianum (Herb Robert)
• Geranium rotundifolium (Round-leaved Crane’s Bill)
• Geranium molle (Dove’s-foot Crane’s Bill)

How to differentiate G. lucidum from G. molle:

• G. lucidum leaves are glossy with less prominent veins and have few hairs; G. molle leaves are fuzzy (not glossy) with prominent veins.
• G. lucidum petals are smooth and round; G. molle petals are deeply notched (it looks like the flowers have 10 petals instead of five).
• G. lucidum tends to have red stems; G. molle stems are less red.

References:

• Calflora: https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=8593
• Jepson eFlora: https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=26726
• https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/animals-and-plants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/shiny-geranium.aspx

• iNaturalist:
  ** https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/77255-Geranium-lucidum
  ** https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/geranium-lucidum-shining-crane-s-bill
  ** https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/geraniums-cranesbills-california

Posted on January 27, 2022 05:33 PM by truthseqr