Geraniaceae, the geranium family.
Description:
Plant:
Erect, spring-blooming plant, 8"-18" high, with a loose cluster of delicate, pink flowers and
a pair of deeply, palmately lobed leaves. Perennial.
Flowers:
Pink, 1"-1.5", with five petals, five sepals,
and ten stamens, in a loose cluster (a cyme) generally with 2-8 flowers.
Buds are hairy.
Leaves:
Usually a single pair of long-petioled leaves, deeply and palmately cut into 5-7 toothed
lobes, on top of a stem that splits at one point into the leaves and a pair of
flowering stalks.
Fruit:
A long, beak-like capsule.
Blooming:
April-early May
Habitat:
Light woods, clearings, thickets and boundaries.
Comments:
A very attractive early spring flower, large enough to be quite noticeable.
Wild geraniums are also known as Cranesbill, a reference to the shape of the fruit.
Cultivated geraniums are in the same family, but in a mostly tropical genus
Pelargonium.
Where to find it:
I have seen these in the woods near the picnic shelter. The blooming period is quite brief here,
seemingly only a week or so.