Cut-leaved crane’s-bill

How to recognise it

Habit

Annual, sometimes biennial, 10–60 cm, sprawling to ascending and branched; often among other plants.

Leaf

Roundish in outline, 2–7 cm, divided almost to the base into 5–7 narrow segments which are cut again; hairy.

Flower

Purplish pink to reddish purple, 8–10 mm across, with five notched petals; sepals with a short bristle tip; on short flower stalks, shorter than the leaves.

Fruit/Seed

A beak-shaped fruit of 1–1.5 cm with five hairy segments; the seeds are finely net-patterned.

Stem

Round, thin, reddish and with spreading hairs, glandular near the top.

Look-alikes

Long-stalked crane’s-bill has long flower stalks, larger flowers and hairless fruit segments. Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill has soft, round leaves cut only halfway. Herb-Robert is larger, smells strongly and has leaves divided into separate leaflets.

Flowering: May–September

Why grow it?

• Food plant of the brown argus, a small butterfly whose caterpillars feed on small crane’s-bills and stork’s-bills.
• Flowers from May to September, providing nectar for small bees, hoverflies and little flies.
• Fine, decorative leaves that often turn red in sunshine.
• A fascinating fruit: when ripe, the beak flings the seeds away, a great show for children.
• Part of flowery verges, field margins and young grassland, and easy to weed where it is not wanted.

Cut-leaved crane’s-bill: where does it grow best?

• In the wild in arable fields, sown grassland, on verges, waste ground, in vegetable plots and in the dunes.
• Full sun; in shade it grows thin.
• Normal to fairly dry, moderately rich soil: sand, loam or clay.
• It needs open patches to germinate: in a dense lawn it disappears, but in young or closely mown grassland it holds its own.

Goes well with

• Common stork’s-bill: A relative of sandy verges, also a food plant of the brown argus.
• Tufted vetch: Purple spikes on the same verge, for bumblebees and bees.
• Common bird’s-foot-trefoil: Yellow flowers for bees and the food plant of the common blue.
• Cornflower: Blue flowers in a field margin, loved by bees and butterflies.

Cut-leaved crane’s-bill: when and how to plant it?

1. Buy seed from a wildflower nursery, or let it arrive by itself; never dig up plants from the wild.
2. Sow in September–October or March–April on loosened soil with a few bare patches.
3. Scatter the seed thinly, rake it in lightly and firm the soil.
4. Leave 20–30 cm between plants, or sow it scattered in a flower mix for a verge or field margin.
5. Keep the soil moist until the seedlings are up; after that no watering is needed.

Care

Watering

Not needed, except for seedlings in a dry spring.

Feeding

Not needed: on soil that is too rich it is overgrown by grass and tall plants.

Mowing

On a flowery verge, mow in July and in September or October and remove the cuttings. This leaves small bare patches where it can germinate.

Spreading

It self-seeds but rarely becomes rampant. In the vegetable plot, pull or hoe unwanted plants before they fruit.

Letting it seed

Let a few plants ripen their beaks: then it will come back every year.

Tip: Do not mow a flowery verge with cut-leaved crane’s-bill before July: by then it has fired off its seed and will come back next year.

Pruning and mowing

When: Not needed: it is an annual. On a verge the mowing regime is enough; in the vegetable plot, weed in May–June, before the fruits ripen.

How:

• Leave the plants until most beaks have burst open, if you want it to come back.
• Pull up unwanted plants roots and all; they come out easily.
• Weeded plants without ripe fruits can go on the compost heap.

Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

It spreads only by seed. When ripe, the strips of the beak suddenly curl up and fling the seed away. The seed germinates mainly in autumn and spring and stays viable in the soil for a few years.

Cut-leaved crane’s-bill: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −15 °C: protect young plants.

• Plants that germinate in autumn overwinter as small rosettes of finely cut, often reddish leaves.
• They survive ordinary Belgian winters; hard frost can kill the rosettes, but the seed in the soil survives.
• Plants that flowered in summer die off in autumn.

Diseases and pests

• Disappearing: In dense, tall grass it no longer germinates. Mow twice a year and remove the cuttings, or make a small bare patch here and there.
• Too many seedlings: In a vegetable plot it can become numerous. Hoe in time and mulch the soil.
• Powdery mildew: Sometimes white powder on the leaves in dry summers. Harmless for an annual; leave it.
• Confusion with other species: Small crane’s-bills look alike. Look at the leaf, the length of the flower stalks and the hairiness of the fruit segments.

Through the year

• March: Sow on loose soil. Autumn rosettes keep growing.
• April: Growth. Sowing is still possible.
• May: Start of flowering. Weed in the vegetable plot where it is not wanted.
• June: Full flower; the first beaks ripen.
• July: Flowering and seed set. First cut on a rich verge.
• August: Flowering. Look out for brown argus caterpillars.
• September: Last flowers. Sow for next year.
• October: Mow and remove the cuttings. New rosettes germinate.

Did you know?

• Geranium comes from the Greek geranos, ‘crane’: the long beak of the fruit resembles a bird’s bill. In Dutch the crane became a stork.
• When the fruit is ripe, the five strips of the beak suddenly curl up and fling the seeds some distance: a catapult of its own.
• Dissectum means ‘cut into pieces’, after the deeply cut leaves.