Marsh geranium

Family Geraniaceae. A common plant of marshy and floodplain meadows.

Perennial plant. Blooms in June-July with purple flowers. Marsh geranium is a rhizomatous plant with large basal seven-lobed leaves on long, up to 20 cm, hairy petioles. By August the leaves die back. Above them rises a flowering stem 50-70 cm high, erect, thickened at the nodes, repeatedly branched. On the stem are attractive five-lobed leaves, and at its top large flowers, two per flower stalk. Flowers 2.5-3 cm in diameter, with ovate petals, mostly wedge-shaped. In August numerous seeds ripen. As they fall, they provide abundant self-seeding under suitable conditions.

The plant is undemanding and hardy. It is recommended for use in mixed flower beds created in sunny, moist sites (near bodies of water, at woodland edges). Of course, this is not a plant for formal sites, but it is interesting in its own way, and nowadays, when there is a fashion for flower beds that imitate the appearance of a natural meadow, it is simply indispensable. This commonplace native plant does not deserve a dismissive attitude. It combines well with other perennials, has a compact dense form and at the same time fairly showy flowers, noticeable from a distance.