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Erodium moschatum; photograph (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-19

Erodium moschatum (L.) L'Hér.

Musk stork's-bill; Musky stork's-bill; White-stem filaree; Ground-needles

Geraniaceae · Netherlands, Baleares +31

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Erodium moschatum, photograph (c) Luis Véliz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erodium moschatum, photograph (c) Luis Véliz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erodium moschatum, photograph (c) Luis Véliz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erodium moschatum, photograph (c) Luis Véliz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erodium moschatum, photograph (c) Luis Véliz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Erodium moschatum, photograph (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.6°C
Record low -4.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
753mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
11–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes September to February and April, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Erodium moschatum is a species of flowering plant in the geranium family known by the common names musk stork's-bill and whitestem filaree. This is a weedy annual or biennial herb which is native to much of Eurasia and North Africa but can be found on most continents where it is an introduced species. In North America, it is found in most of the northeast United States and in Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona, as well as the Canadian provices of Québec and Ontario.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Erodium moschatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (549 mm of 753 mm) falls in September to February and April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.2 °C against a yearly mean of 14.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to August and October.

Rain

753 mm in the median year at the habitat, 549 mm of it September to February and April. Wettest month December at 99 mm, driest month July at 19 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 539 mm to 1,179 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 753 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 753 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -4.8 °C, 244 frost nights in 44 years, 5.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.2 °C to 9.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -89 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Erodium moschatum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 4.7 °C; 753 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-4.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 11–45RH 58–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 702 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 8–1512 / 8–1614 / 10–1816 / 12–2020 / 15–2424 / 18–2927 / 20–3227 / 20–3224 / 18–2819 / 15–2315 / 11–1812 / 8–16
Night °C5 / 1–95 / 2–97 / 4–118 / 6–1212 / 9–1515 / 12–1918 / 14–2118 / 14–2216 / 12–2012 / 9–178 / 5–136 / 2–11
Rain mm78 / 51–15062 / 43–11658 / 39–9863 / 44–10159 / 30–8537 / 10–6419 / 2–6131 / 5–6562 / 25–9093 / 58–13792 / 62–14699 / 61–160
DLI13 / 6–1719 / 11–2327 / 19–3234 / 29–4040 / 34–4545 / 37–4945 / 35–5040 / 31–4530 / 22–3620 / 13–2614 / 8–1811 / 5–15
RH %62 / 59–6761 / 58–6560 / 55–6359 / 54–6360 / 53–6359 / 50–6458 / 47–6559 / 48–6560 / 52–6462 / 56–6562 / 58–6663 / 59–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 702 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (785 records in those cells; 21 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1051:3502 (37.425, -4.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 702 distinct grid cells holding 785 of the 806 in-range records (21 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1051:3502 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-5.000, lapse-corrected -89 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 174 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNetherlands, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Saudi Arabia · introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Baltic States, Cape Provinces, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Ontario, Québec, Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, South Carolina, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Guatemala, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Uruguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker42.506, 2.843 · in the densest population, 432 records (50% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or biennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 857 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 785 of them in the land cells it reads, of 806 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 475 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 610 km away. 747 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 51 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 8391331 (Erodium moschatum (L.) Aiton): Kew's file holds it as Erodium moschatum (L.) L'Hér. (accepted); 15 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 857 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Erodium moschatum, photograph 1did not loadErodium moschatum, photograph 2did not loadErodium moschatum, photograph 3did not loadErodium moschatum, photograph 4did not loadErodium moschatum, photograph 5did not loadErodium moschatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Luis Véliz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Silene gallica Silene gallica Small-flowered catchfly Photo: CC0, author not statedMalva olbia Malva olbia Malvaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedArbutus unedo Arbutus unedo Strawberry tree Photo: CC BY, B. PhalanRubia peregrina Rubia peregrina Wild madder Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardRhamnus alaternus Rhamnus alaternus Mediterranean buckthorn Photo: CC BY, Thomas DreuxPolycarpon tetraphyllum Polycarpon tetraphyllum Four-leaved allseed Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinha

Other Erodium 28 in the reference

Erodium absinthoides Erodium absinthoides Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY, Todd BolandErodium acaule Erodium acaule Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY, Aubin NORMAND Erodium astragaloides Geraniaceae Erodium botrys Erodium botrys Mediterranean stork's-bill Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyErodium carvifolium Erodium carvifolium Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Cesar SilvestreErodium cheilanthifolium Erodium cheilanthifolium Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY, Santiago Martín-BravoErodium chrysanthum Erodium chrysanthum Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Meneerke bloemErodium ciconium Erodium ciconium Common stork's bill Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardErodium cicutarium Erodium cicutarium Common stork's-bill Photo: CC BY, Petr HarantErodium corsicum Erodium corsicum Corsican Stork's-bill Photo: CC BY, Yves BasErodium daucoides Erodium daucoides Geraniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, alvarogiraldezguerrero22Erodium foetidum Erodium foetidum Rock Stork's-bill Photo: CC BY, Yves Bas all 29 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Erodium allotrichum; Erodium australe; Erodium cicutarium var. allotrichum; Erodium dentatum; Erodium moschatum f. praecox and 10 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Geraniaceae
Described by
(L.) L'Hér.
Native to
Netherlands, Baleares, Corse +30
Wild records
857 in range · 475 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 15 records of GBIF's key 8391331, Erodium moschatum (L.) Aiton (Kew's file holds it as Erodium moschatum (L.) L'Hér. (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 105 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (70 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 13 at a herbarium, 22 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-5.000, lapse-corrected -89 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its POWO identifier 372354-1 is Kew's for Erodium moschatum (L.) L'Hér.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 154 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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