Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill

How to recognise it

Habit

Annual, 5–40 cm, with a rosette of long-stalked leaves and sprawling to ascending, branched stems.

Leaf

Round in outline, 1–5 cm, cut to about halfway into 5–9 lobes, each with three short teeth at the tip; velvety and soft.

Flower

Pink to purplish pink, 6–10 mm across, with five deeply notched petals; usually in pairs, from April to September.

Fruit/Seed

A small beaked fruit; the fruit segments are hairless and clearly wrinkled crosswise, the seeds smooth.

Stem

Thin and branched, densely covered in long, white, spreading hairs and shorter glandular hairs.

Look-alikes

Small-flowered crane’s-bill has smaller, pale lilac flowers and hairy fruit segments without wrinkles. Round-leaved crane’s-bill has petals without a notch. Cut-leaved crane’s-bill has leaves divided almost to the base into narrow segments. Dwarf mallow also has round leaves, but only shallowly lobed, with pale flowers and disc-shaped fruits.

Flowering: April–September

Why grow it?

• Food plant for the brown argus, a small butterfly of dry, flowery grassland.
• Flowers from April onwards, with nectar for small bees, hoverflies and little flies.
• Tolerates mowing: in a flowering lawn it simply keeps blooming, just above the ground.
• A little plant for dry, sunny spots where little else flowers: sandy soil, gravel, wall bases and dykes.
• The soft, round leaves and tiny beaks are fun for children to touch and discover.

Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill: where does it grow best?

• In the wild in dry grassland, lawns, verges, on dykes, in the dunes, on walls and along field margins.
• Full sun.
• Dry, free-draining soil: sand, gravel or sandy loam, moderately poor to moderately rich.
• It needs a few bare patches to germinate; it feels at home in a closely mown, rather poor lawn.

Goes well with

• Daisy: Flowers alongside it in a flowering lawn and also tolerates mowing.
• Black medick: Small yellow pompons on the same dry soil, for bees.
• Mouse-ear hawkweed: Yellow flowers and silvery rosettes on poor, sandy soil.
• Large thyme: A fragrant, low plant for dry, sunny spots, loved by bees and butterflies.

Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill: when and how to plant it?

1. Planting is rarely needed: dove’s-foot crane’s-bill turns up by itself in lawns and verges. Never dig up plants from the wild.
2. If you want to sow it, buy seed from a wildflower nursery or take seed from your own garden.
3. Sow in September–October in bare patches of a poor lawn or on sandy soil; autumn-germinating plants flower earliest.
4. Scatter the seed thinly, press it in and keep it moist until it germinates.
5. Leave 15–20 cm between plants; no other care is needed.

Care

Watering

Not needed: it is adapted to dry summers and dies after setting seed.

Feeding

Do not feed: fertiliser strengthens the grass, which crowds it out.

Mowing

In a flowering lawn you can simply mow, preferably no shorter than 5–6 cm; now and then leave a patch longer so that it sets seed.

Spreading

It is not invasive but can become numerous in a short lawn. To remove it there, overseed the bare patches with grass seed.

Letting it seed

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

Tip: Do not mow a flowering lawn shorter than 5–6 cm and leave a strip uncut in May: dove’s-foot crane’s-bill, daisies and clovers then get the chance to flower and set seed.

Pruning and mowing

When: Not needed: it is an annual. Mow a lawn as usual; in a border, weed out unwanted plants in April–May, before the fruits ripen.

How:

• In a lawn: mow at 5–6 cm, so the flowers stay above the cutting height or quickly flower again.
• In a border or gravel garden: pull up unwanted plants rosette and all; they are shallow-rooted.
• Let a few plants finish flowering in a fixed spot if you want to keep it.

Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

It spreads only by seed. The beak flings away the fruit segments with their seed. The seed germinates mainly in autumn; the young rosettes overwinter and flower in spring. A second generation sometimes germinates in summer.

Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −15 °C: protect young plants.

• Overwinters as a small, green, softly hairy rosette in the grass.
• It survives ordinary Belgian winters; hard frost can kill rosettes, but the seed in the soil survives.
• Early in spring it is one of the first plants to flower in dry grassland and lawns.

Diseases and pests

• Too much in the lawn: A sign of dry, poor soil with bare patches. If you want a dense lawn, overseed in autumn; for a flowering lawn, leave it.
• Disappearing: In dense, tall grass it no longer germinates. Mow regularly, remove the cuttings and do not feed.
• Confusion with other species: Small crane’s-bills and dwarf mallow look alike. Look at the flowers, the notch in the petals and the wrinkles on the fruit segments.
• Drying out: In summer it withers quickly. That is normal: by then its seed is already ripe.

Through the year

• March: The rosettes grow; the first flower buds appear.
• April: Start of flowering in lawns and verges.
• May: Full flower; the first beaks ripen.
• June: Flowering and seed set. Leave a patch of lawn longer.
• July: Many plants wither after setting seed; a second generation flowers.
• August: Late flowering. Look out for brown argus caterpillars.
• September: Last flowers. Sow in bare patches.
• October: New rosettes germinate. Sowing is still possible.

Did you know?

• Molle means ‘soft’ in Latin, after the velvety hairs covering the whole plant.
• The English name ‘dove’s-foot crane’s-bill’ refers to the cut leaf, which was thought to resemble a dove’s foot.
• It usually germinates in autumn and flowers early in the year, so its seed is formed before summer drought sets in: a clever adaptation to dry sandy soil.