Scale

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  West Common Road, Hayes, 17 April 2016.

 Just a brief post to illustrate one of the diffculties in identifying even the most common plants.  This is a Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  In fact it is a bank of many plants at the side of a road. 

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  West Common Road, Hayes, 2 May 2016.

 Step back a bit and it looks like this.  This group is six feet across.

Then we have ...

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle.  Saville Row, Hayes, 28 April 2016.

This, which is three inches across in a crack in a pavement.  It's the same species.

Often the same plant can adapt to a range of environments, growing differently to suit each one.

Small-flowered and Dove's-foot Cranesbills, Geranium pusillum and Geranium molle.
Farnborough Crescent, Hayes, 2 May 2016.

But some environments suit more than one species.  There are two small geraniums here, Small-flowered Crane's-bill below and the larger Dove's-foot Crane's-bill above.  You can see here that there are differences in their general appearance, but each one might look different again in a different environment.  At first glance, the small specimen above looks a lot like the Small-flowered, but it's not.  That's why it is useful to know what specific things to look for.  In this case it's the hairs on their leaf stems, illustrated in a recent post.