Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Cranesbill

Here we have some kind of cranesbill — Carolina cranesbill, I think. I found it blossoming in Jerry Pavese Park.


(Click on images to enlarge)

And back in Ainsworth, beside the Canadian National tracks, we find it already fruiting. In this picture you can see the long, narrow fruit that supposedly resembles a crane's bill and gives the plant its name.



The most interesting thing I learned in reading up on this plant is that our word "geranium" derives from the Greek word for crane. Cranesbills are geraniums and vice versa — but we're talking about wild geraniums, because those domesticated geraniums you buy at the nursery are really pelargoniums, not true geraniums. Or so says Jack Sanders, anyway.