Dove's-foot Crane's-bill Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Dove's-foot Crane's-bill

Scientific classification
Genus:	Geranium
Species:	molle

Geranium molle, also known as the Dove's-foot Crane's-bill or Dovesfoot Geranium, is a small, pretty plant. It's an annual plant, which means it completes its whole life cycle in one year. This plant belongs to the Geraniaceae family, which includes many types of geraniums.

What Does the Dove's-foot Geranium Look Like?
Where Does This Plant Grow?
Traditional Uses of the Plant
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What Does the Dove's-foot Geranium Look Like?

The Dove's-foot Geranium is a small plant. It usually grows to be about 5 to 30 centimeters (2 to 12 inches) tall. This plant has many branches and is quite hairy. It has several stems that grow upwards.

Its leaves are shaped like a hand, with 5 to 9 deep cuts. The leaves at the bottom of the plant grow in a circle, like a rosette. The leaves higher up are round and hairy. They don't have a stalk and are directly attached to the stem. The lower leaves have a long stalk, about 5 to 12 millimeters (0.2 to 0.5 inches) long.

The flowers are a lovely pinkish-purple color. They are about 8 to 12 millimeters (0.3 to 0.5 inches) wide. Each flower has petals that look very jagged or torn. This plant blooms from April to September. Its flowers have both male and female parts. They are mostly pollinated by bees and wasps. After the flowers, the plant grows smooth fruits. These fruits usually have 6 to 9 small ridges across them.

Where Does This Plant Grow?

The Dove's-foot Geranium originally comes from areas around the Mediterranean Sea. This includes parts of southern Europe and North Africa. But it has also spread and now grows naturally in other places. You can find it in other parts of Europe, southwestern and central Asia, and North Africa. It might have been in some of these places for a long time, but people didn't identify it correctly.

In North America, it is considered an introduced species. This means it was brought there by people, not by nature. In North America, it is often called Dovefoot Geranium or Awnless Geranium. Even though it's not native to some areas, this plant usually doesn't harm the local plants or ecosystems.

You can often find this plant in dry meadows, along hedges, on banks, and at the edges of forests. It likes sunny spots with sandy and somewhat dry soil. It grows at different heights, from sea level up to about 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level.

Traditional Uses of the Plant

Long ago, people used plants for medicine. A famous herbalist named Nicholas Culpeper wrote a book in 1652. In his book, he suggested many ways to use Geranium molle. He thought it could help heal injuries, both inside and outside the body. He noted that if you crushed the leaves and put them on an injury, it would heal faster. People also believed that a special drink made from the plant and wine could help with gout and other joint pains.