Bloody crane's-bill
Low crane's-bill with magenta flowers on dry limestone grassland and woodland edges; its long bloom gives honey bees good nectar and pollen.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0.2-0.4 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Bloody crane's-bill is a spreading perennial, 20–40 cm tall, of dry, calcareous grassland, rocky slopes and the edges of open oak woods and scrub from Europe to the Caucasus, Thrace and northern Anatolia. Its finely divided leaves, which turn blood-red in autumn, give the plant its name. The magenta flowers, 3–4 cm across and borne singly, have easily reached nectar at their base; honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees visit them in large numbers.
Flowering
It flowers over a long period from May to August; in favourable years scattered flowers can also be seen in September.
Honey and pollen
It has no honey of its own; it is a component of dry-meadow and woodland-edge honeys. Pollen is also collected.
Note for the beekeeper
As a drought-tolerant, long-lived ground cover it is very well suited to bee gardens, rock gardens and banks. Thanks to its long flowering period it makes a small, steady contribution from the spring flow to the end of summer.