Erodium cygnorum

Australian filaree

Family: Geraniaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Australian filaree is a naturalized annual herb found in southern coastal California in abandoned fields and disturbed sites at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces pink, purple, or blue flowers with petals larger than its sepals. Growing with decumbent to ascending stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall that are soft-hairy, it has deeply divided leaves with lower leaf blades up to 8 centimeters long and ovate in outline. Its leaves are intricately structured, with lower divisions more than 10 millimeters wide and wedge-shaped, creating a distinctive foliage pattern. The fruit develops with a body 5 to 6 millimeters long, accompanied by a style column 5 to 6 centimeters in length.

Habitat: Uncommon. Abandoned fields, disturbed sites

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: SCo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.