Citation: L'Hér. ex Aiton, Hort. Kew. 2:414 (1789).

Derivation: Greek herbdios, a heron; the awned mericarp resembling a heron's bill.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Storks bills.

Description:
Ascending annual or short-lived herbs; leaves opposite, deeply dissected or lobed or compound.

Flowers arranged in cymose umbels, sometimes in pairs, more or less irregular; petals blue or purplish to pink or rarely white; fertile stamens 5, alternating with 5 staminodes.

Mericarps hairy, not releasing the seed, with a spiral awn which has long harsh hairs inside; the awn reacting to changes in atmospheric humidity and reputed to drive the mericarp into the ground.

Distribution:  About 60 species in Europe, Africa and Australia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Pits on the mericarp at the base of the awns with large glandular hairs
2. Leaves pinnately compound	E. moschatum 9.
2. Leaves lobed or ternate
3. Leaves ovate, slightly lobed; sepal awn c. 1 mm long	E. malacoides 8.
3. Leaves ovate-oblong, deeply lobed to ternate-compound; sepal awn c. 0.5 mm long	E. aureum 2.
1. Pits on the mericarp without glandular hairs
4. Leaves pinnate-compound, the leaflets deeply dissected	E. cicutarium 5.
4. Leaves deeply lobed to pinnatisect or ternate
5. Hairs of the calyx mostly eglandular
6. Hairs of the calyx not appressed	E. crinitum 6.
6. Hairs of the calyx appressed
7. Lateral lobes of the leaf 4-6, oblong to narrow-oblong; pedicels pubescent	E. angustilobum 1.
7. Lateral lobes of the leaf oblong to obovate, only the lowest two cut to the midrib; pedicels glabrous	E. cygnorum subsp. cygnorum 7a.
5. Hairs of the calyx glandular
8. Hairs on the stem coarse and eglandular towards the base; leaves pinnate-lobed or dissected
9. Pit on the mericarp at the base of the awn hirsute, with an obtuse rim; awn to 8.5 cm long	E. brachycarpum 4.
9. Pit on the mericarp at the base of the awn glabrous, with an acute chartaceous rim; awn usually longer than 8.5 cm	E. botrys 3.
8. Hairs on the stem glandular; leaves ternately lobed	E. cygnorum subsp. glandulosum 7b.

Author: Not yet available