Erodium malacoides

Mediterranean filaree

Family: Geraniaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Mediterranean filaree is a naturalized annual herb found in northern San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and southern California coastal regions in open sites, grasslands, and scrub habitats at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from February to July, this plant produces pink to purple flowers with darker veined bases, each petal approximately equal in length to the bristly-tipped sepals. Growing with decumbent to ascending stems 10 to 60 centimeters tall and covered in short puberulent hairs, it has distinctively glandular nodes. Its leaves are simple and ovate to oblong, typically 4 to 15 centimeters long, with cordate bases, crenate to shallowly lobed margins, and short appressed hairs covering the surface. The distinctive fruit develops a 3 to 5 millimeter body with round pits and a long style column reaching 2 to 3 centimeters.

Habitat: Open sites, grassland, scrub

Bloom period: Feb-Jul

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: n SnJV, SnFrB, SCo

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