Wild Geranium

Appearance

It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to 60 cm tall, producing upright, usually unbranched stems and flowers in spring to early summer. The leaves are palmately lobed with five or seven deeply cut lobes, 10–12.5 cm broad, with a petiole up to 30 cm long arising from the rootstock. They are deeply parted into three or five divisions, each of which is again cleft and toothed.

The flowers are 2.5–4 cm in diameter, with five rose-purple, pale or violet-purple petals and ten stamens. In the Northern Hemisphere, they appear from April to June. They are grouped in loose corymbs or umbels of two to five at the top of the flower stems.

The fruit capsule, which springs open when ripe, consists of five cells each containing one seed joined to a long beak-like column 2–3 cm long produced from the center of the old flower.

The rhizome is long, and 5 to 10 cm thick, with numerous branches. It is covered with scars, showing the remains of stems of previous years' growth. When dry it has a somewhat purplish color internally.

Naming

It is known as spotted cranesbill or wild cranesbill in Europe, but the wood cranesbill is another plant, the related "G. sylvaticum". Colloquial names are alum root, alum bloom and old maid's nightcap.

Distribution

It grows in dry to moist woods and is normally abundant when found.

Uses

The plant has been used in herbal medicine, and is also grown as a garden plant. Wild geranium is considered an astringent, a substance that causes contraction of the tissues and stops bleeding. The Mesquakie Indians brewed a root tea for toothache and for painful nerves and mashed the roots for treating hemorrhoids.