Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Geranium maderense

Other names

Madeiran Crane’s-bill

Family

Geraniaceae

Flowering season

March to August

English distribution

It is naturalised in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and a few

places in the South.

See the BSBI distribution map for Giant Herb-Robert

Habitat

It is a neophyte, introduced into English gardens from

Madeira around 1950, and recorded as a naturalised

escape in the Channel Islands in the late 1970s.

It is now found in hedgerows and on waste land and

sea-cliffs in frost-free areas.

Description

Giant Herb-Robert is a bushy, glandular, perennial

or biennial herb, growing up to 1.5m. It is the largest

Geranium.

The flowerhead is up to 50cm across with

pink-purple flowers and glandular flower stems.

The flowers are up to 4cm across and have 5 pink

petals with dark purple centres.

There are 5 stamens and a 5-lobed stigma.

Leaves are up to 20cm long, slightly fern-like, and

are below the large flowerhead. They disappear

towards the end of the season.

Stems are red to purple.

The Herb Robert, which normally grows in the UK, is

found in April on this website.