The ingenuities of nature are seemingly infinite. Take a close look at the petals of a wild geranium flower and you will see dark blue lines leading from the outer edge to the center of the blossom. If you were a bee with its ability to see ultraviolet light, the lines would be more pronounced and act like guides, directing you to land on the plant’s reproductive parts, deposit the pollen you picked up from the previous plant you visited, and help insure the propagation of the species.
Joe Cook and Monica Sheppard
(Incidentally, while the pollen of most plants is an orange-yellow, that of the wild geranium is a brilliant blue. Researchers are not sure if this is also a mechanism to attract bees.)
After the pink and purplish petals of the Wild Geranium drop off, an elongated ovary becomes part of the seed pod—which resembles a bird’s head with a long beak rising up from the stem. In fact, hundreds of years ago, inhabitants of the Old World named the plant Cranesbill, and even the word geranium comes from the Greek geranos, which means “crane.” As the seeds ripen and enlarge, they cause the pod to curl and become ever tighter. Eventually the pressure becomes too much and the pod bursts, sending the seeds out in all directions. Some observers say the seeds are catapulted more than thirty feet away!
Flower Fast Facts
FLOWER: The pink to purplish, upright, round-petaled flowers have five pointed sepals, ten stamens, and one pistil. They grow in loose clusters of two to five.
LEAVES AND STEM: The grayish leaves have coarsely-toothed lobes and grow oppositely on a stem of one to two feet in height. They may become covered with white dots as they age.
BLOOM SEASON: April to June
About This Series
“Mountain Wildflowers” features a wildflower from the Blue Ridge region each month from March to October. Leonard M. Adkins has written for Blue Ridge Country for more than two decades and is the author of 20 books about travel, hiking and nature. His Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, which received the prestigious National Outdoor Book Award, provides the photographs and some of the information he writes about in each “Mountain Wildflowers.” It and his other works may be obtained through his website.