Nomenclature

Species name:

Erodium moschatum   (L.) L'Her.

Author(s):

Carl von Linné
   Sweden, 1707-1778

Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle
   France, 1746-1800

Common name:

Musk Stork's Bill
Musky storkbill
Musk Heron's bill
Musk clover
White stemmed filaree

Maltese name:

Haxixa tal-misk

Plant Family:

Geraniaceae   (Geranium Family)

Name Derivation:

Erodium = from the Greek erodios, "a heron," due to the long beak on the fruit that gives rise to some of its common names such as storksbill and cranesbill. The latter meaning is reinforced by the family name Geranium, the derivation of which is geranos, "crane" (Greek);

moschatum = Having a musky scent (a natural scent from deer) (Latin).

Synonyms:

Herodium moschatum, Geranium cicutarium var. moschatum

Plant Description

Life Cycle:

Annual or Biennial

Habitat:

Fields, road Margins, country lanes, waste places.

Sources in Malta:

A common plant distributed throughout most of the Maltese islands. Examples - Buskett, Lapsi, Mellieha, Qrendi, Dingli, Zurrieq and many more localities with arable areas.

Plant Height:

10-45cm

Flowering Time:

Dec-May

A small plant which in the early stage of its life is found lying on the ground, but at a later stage, new stems ascends up reaching a height up to 50cm above ground. Faint scent of musk is said to be emitted when leaves are crushed. The stem and most of the plant have wite hairs which are more numerous at the upper flowering parts.

The leaves are up to 25cm long and pinnatisect to the rachis (midrib) that looks to be consisting of several opposite leaflets. In other words, these leaflets are actually lobes of the main oblong-lanceolate leaf. The lobes themselves have a well-marked dentate outline and in some extremes they are themselves pinnatifid. Leaves have basal stipules which are maroon.

The flowers are arranged in umbels of 5 to 12 and each has broadly ovate, pale brown, scarious bracts. The actinomorphic flowers are composed of 5, free sepals (about 7mm long) and 5 free petals (about 14mm long) which alternate over each other. The green sepals generally have an oval shape with an aristate tip, that is having an awn or bristle-like green tip. This tip usually forms 2 long, divergent and translucent hairs or bristles.

The colour of the corolla varies from off-white pink to lilac to purple. The petals are oval in shape, slightly wrinkled and have short, hairy claws. The 5 stamens are often curved inwards where their apical anthers come into contact with each other. Filaments are purple, anthers maroon and covered with yellow or amber pollen. The female reproductive part consists of a superior ovary consisting of 5 mericarps, initially united, then separates at the fruiting phase. There is a single style and a terminal stigma which splits into 5 filiform parts that are pruple.

At fruiting the style elongates to become a needle-like structure (25-45mm long) known as a beak. The 5 mericarps (each holding one seed) are connected to the tip of the beak by a strap-like appandage called the rostrum which is located around the beak. When mature, the entire mericarp is pulled from its receptacle by the rostrum and both detach themselves from the beak and fall to the ground. The rostrum winds up to several turns forming a cork-screw structure. This winds and unwinds gradually with varying humidity, and as a result, a an overall drilling effect down into the soil is created. The narrow tapering head of the mericarp helps the burrowing process. Once in humid soil, the mericarp wall breaks and the seed is found down in the soil.

The mericarp of Erodium spp. have arrangements of pits, furrows and ridges which some taxonomist use them for identification. E. moschatum have a very wide apical pits, followed by a deep furrow. The tapering body of the mericarp have yellow-brown spread-out hairs.

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