See text Erodium is a genus of flowering plants in the botanical family Geraniaceae.

[1] They are perennials, annuals, or subshrubs, with five-petalled flowers in shades of white, pink, and purple, that strongly resemble the better-known Geranium (crane's-bills).

The distinction between them was made by Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle based on the number of stamens or anthers; five in Erodium,[4] seven for Pelargonium, and ten for Geranium.

That characteristic is the basis for the names: Geranium evokes the crane (Greek geranos), Pelargonium the stork (pelargos), and Erodium the heron (erodios).

[2] The hybrid cultivar E. × variabile 'Roseum' (E. corsicum × E. reichardii), a compact, spreading perennial with rose-pink flowers in summer, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.