Flora of Israel: Hoary-leaved Heron's-bill

Erodium crassifolium, Erodium hirtum, Hoary-leaved Heron's-bill,
Hebrew: מקור חסידה שעיר, Arabic: الرقمة سميكة الأوراق


Scientific name:		Erodium crassifolium L'Her.
Synonym name:		Erodium hirtum Willd.
Common name:		Hoary-leaved Heron's-bill
Hebrew name:		מקור חסידה שעיר
Arabic name:		الرقمة سميكة الأوراق
Plant Family:		Geraniaceae, גרניים


Life form:		Hemicryptophyte (=buds at or near the soil surface)
Stems:		Develops tubers on its roots; suffruticose branching stem; flowering branches erect, slender, reddish brown, thickly clothed with unequal villous hairs;
Leaves:		Alternate, rosette, pinnated or deeply lacinated leaves; stipule
Flowers:		Hermaphrodite; pink, violet; peduncles many flowered
Fruits / pods:		Capsules pubescent; aristae above 7.5cm long, spirally twisted, feathered inside, the outside pubescent
Flowering Period:		February, March, April, May
Habitat:		Shrub-steppes, Desert
Distribution:		Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts
Chorotype:		Saharo-Arabian
Summer shedding:		Ephemeral

Erodium crassifolium, Erodium hirtum, Hoary-leaved Heron's-bill, מקור חסידה שעיר

Derivation of the botanical name:
Erodium, Greek: erodiós or ερωδιός, a heron; the carpels of these plants resemble the head and beak of a heron.
crassifolium, crassus, solid, thick, fat, dense; folium, leaf; thick leaves.
hirtum, hirtus, hairy, shaggy, rough, uncultivated; hairy.
The Hebrew word: מקור-חסידה, makor chasida / stork beak, is a mistake in the translation (chasida means stork). In Greek, the stork is called Πελασγός pelargos, pelargonium.

The standard author abbreviation L'Her. is used to indicate Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746 – 1800), a French botanist and magistrate.
The standard author abbreviation Willd. is used to indicate Carl Ludwig von Willdenow (1765 – 1812), a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist.

_{Location: Negev, Avdat}