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| Herb Robert; Geranium Robertianum L. |
Geranium Family; GERANIACEÆ
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| Herb Robert stinks with an odor that is vaguely ginger- or cilantro-like. Reddish tint and stinking odor prove the two most prominent features of this weed. A generous selection of its many English names must suffice as a weak substitute for its incommunicable stench: Red Robin, Red Shanks, Robin's Eye, Dragon's Blood, Death-Come-Quickly, Fox Geranium, Stinker Bobs, Stinking Bob, Stink Flowers, Stinking Jenny, Stinking Roger, Stinking Crane's-bill, and Stinking Robert or Bob. |
| That something so pretty can smell so foul is one of Nature's wry surprises. This plant is indeed a "scented" Geranium! It is native in Eastern North America, extreme north Africa, and Eurasia. Adapting to different climates, it grows variously as an annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herb. Remarkably skinny, insubstantial roots support a disproportionately heavy top of delicate, ferny foliage. The leaf-stalks, flowerstems, and sometimes more-or-less the leaves, are reddish, covered with threadlike clear hairs. Little bright pink (rarely white) flowers appear from (April) May onward, decreasing in late summer, with a few sporadic plants producing some into December. |
| More so than nearly all weeds, it is a woodland one. No significant pest to gardeners in general, and not toxic despite stinking terribly, it does however threaten native wildflowers. So, in an arboretum, in woodland ornamental gardens, and in parks of native vegetation, this attractive little invader ought be carefully watched lest it too rampantly reproduce, thereby choking-out more desirable plants. Happily, it is pulled-up with gratifying ease. The seeds have a way of spitting forth and clinging to clothing. So the weed gets around. |
Two cousins keep it company in local gardens sometimes: Dove or Lawn Geranium (Geranium molle), is a ravishingly soft, pretty pest; and Filaree (Erodium cicutarium), is a plainer-looking plant with conspicuous pin-like seeds. Neither much resembles Herb Robert except in their flowers; and both prefer sunny sites.
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Originally published as the Seattle Tilth newsletter Weed of the Month in December 1986, along with an illustration drawn by Jerri Geer.
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