6. Geranium pusillum L. (small crane’s bill)

Pl. 422 n; Map 1888

Plants annual or biennial, usually taprooted. Aerial stems 10–50 cm long, spreading to ascending, moderately pubescent with short (0.1–0.3 mm) spreading glandular and nonglandular hairs. Leaves basal and opposite, the uppermost leaves often alternate, the basal ones long-petiolate, those of the stems with progressively shorter petioles. Leaf blades 1.5–4.0(–6.0) cm long, wider than long to about as long as wide, kidney-shaped to nearly circular in outline, shallowly to deeply 5–9-lobed, the lobes more or less obtriangular, mostly shallowly but sharply 3-lobed or toothed at the tip, the surfaces moderately pubescent with short nonglandular hairs, those of the upper surface sometimes becoming sparse with age. Inflorescences appearing axillary, short- to long-stalked, consisting of pairs of flowers. Individual flower stalks 5–15 mm long, 2–4 times as long as the sepals, pubescent with spreading, short, glandular and nonglandular hairs. Sepals 3.0–4.5 mm long, not becoming enlarged at fruiting, elliptic-ovate to ovate, tapered or narrowed to an inconspicuous, minute (to 0.1 mm), sharp point at the tip, pubescent with longer, more or less spreading, nonglandular and sparse shorter glandular hairs. Petals 2.5–5.0 mm long, obtriangular, notched at the tip, bright pinkish purple. Stamens 5(–7). Staminodes (3–)5. Mericarps 9–12 mm long at maturity, the seed-containing basal portion 1.7–1.9 mm long, the lateral surfaces smooth, moderately to densely and minutely hairy, with a narrow riblike dorsal wing (or this extending all the way around the mericarp), the stylar beak with minute ascending nonglandular hairs, lacking an extension, narrowing directly from the columnar portion to the stigmas. Seeds 1.6–1.8 mm long, the surface appearing smooth or with a faint fine network of ridges and pits. 2n=26. April–August.

Introduced, scattered to uncommon, mostly in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions (native of Europe, Asia, widely introduced in the U.S. and Canada south to South Carolina, Arkansas, and California; also Hawaii, South America, Africa, New Zealand). Bottomland forests, openings of mesic upland forests, banks of streams and rivers, and glades; also old fields, lawns, pastures, roadsides, railroads, and moist open disturbed areas.