The Stork's Bill is very well known. In summer it grows plentifully on
dry ground, especially near the sea coast.
The flowers grow on short stalks. You will find a bunch of five
flower-stalks rising together at the end of the main stem. Each flower
has five pretty pink petals with smooth edges. These pink petals soon
fall off, and you then notice a long green spike coming out of the green
cup formed by the sepals. Each green spike is supposed to resemble a
stork's bill, and from this resemblance the flower gets its name.
When the plant is ready to scatter its seeds, many fine green threads
loosen themselves from the spike, and curl round and round like a
corkscrew. At the end of each green thread there is a seed. When the
seed is ripe, both the seed and the corkscrew-thread separate from the
spike and fall to the ground.
The green leaves of the Stork's Bill are cut up into leaflets which are
arranged on each side of a centre stalk, but not always exactly opposite
each other. There is always a single leaflet at the end of this centre
stalk.