Herb Robert? Never heard of him!!

Herb Robert - lobed leaves and small pink flowers

So, did he tour with Dave Brubeck, or was it Miles Davis?  Was he hip?  Not really...  Herb Robert might sound like it should a jazz musician, but if you Take Five (see what I did there?) and look at the photo above, you'll think in terms of a different branch of the arts.  To me at least, the leaves here look like a William Morris* design.  

The small, pink flowers tend to be a good few inches apart but a large Herb Robert can put up a good showing. In the early autumn, the flowers become purple. The plant's appearance varies across the UK; in some northern parts of England, the flowers are white rather than pink, and in rocky places the stems tend to be red. One thing that seems not to vary is the smell of the plant - I have a typical ex-smokers lack of sense of smell, but I'm told that it Herb Roberts smells rather unpleasant. So much so, in fact, that it is also known as Stinking Bob**. It has not been unknown for people to crush the leaves and use them as mosquito repellent.  It is a member of the Geranium family, and I'm pretty sure I'd prefer the scent of a lemon-scented one to the smell of Herb Robert.

It is quite a common plant; this particular one is growing in a park not far from where we live.  I happened to be walking past it earlier today so in my usual fashion I took a few photos.  Today was not as windy as some recent days, so it was a bit easier to take a sharp one!   I was pleased to see this one, because some of the better local specimens are in people's front garden or grown where the pavement meets their (low) garden walls.

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*By the way, the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, London, is well worth visiting.

**In fact, it has other 'common' names (as opposed to it's scientific Latin one Geranium robertianium) as well, including death-come-quickly.  One of the reasons that the Latin names are so useful is that there's only one per plant and that one name tells you the genus (type of plant) as well as the exact species.  Some plants have many common names - this is just one example. 

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