Crane's-bill, Pencilled

Information on Pencilled Crane's-bill

Common Name: Pencilled Crane's-bill
Scientific Name: Geranium versicolor
Irish Name: Crobh stríocach
Family Group: Geraniaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Pencilled Crane's-bill could sometimes be confused with:

Crane's-bill, Druce's,

This flower is in many ways a pale version of Bloody Crane's-bill with a most beautiful tracery of violet-coloured veins on its petals, giving it the 'pencilled' description.  It has pale pink 5-petalled flowers, 2-3cm across, the petals being notched.  It flowers from June to August.  The downy leaves have three to five deeply toothed, quite broad lobes. The fruit is as in other Crane's-bills, a beak-shaped pod.  Not a native plant, Pencilled Crane's-bill comes to us from Italy and the Balkans. It belongs to the family Geraniaceae.  

I first came across this pretty plant growing beside the River Barrow in Athy, Co Kildare in 2003.  It was also photographed at that time. 

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

This is a garden escape which has established itself in a few spots in the 'wild' and so deserves to be mentioned among the other Crane's-bills.  There are also several hybrids between this and Geranium endressii or French Cranesbill and if I have made a mis-identification here, I would appreciate being corrected. 

Crane's-bill, Pencilled