Some similarities to : Little Robin (Geranium purpureum), but Little Robin grows only in the South West and has redder flowers, is taller than Herb-Robert and the leaves are more narrowly cut.

Distinguishing Feature : Once you have found this plant you are unlikely to mistake it for anything else. Unless you come across it in the prostrate form where it seems to be a different plant, but closer inspection will reveal mostly the same characteristics.

No relation to : Herb-Bennet nor with the much rarer Herb-Paris [plants with similar names]

One of the longest flowering members of the Geranium Family, flowering for 8 months. It is very hardy and extremely weedy, being very difficult to eradicate from a garden once it has found its way in. The small pink flower about a half-inch across has five petals which if notched at all are slightly nicked twice on either side of the centre-line rather than on the centre-line as most other notched petals. There is also a white petalled form which occurs quite frequently. The pollen is yellow.

Herb-Robert is ubiquitous throughout the UK. Normally it is quite sticky and smells horribly if crushed, hence the nick-name 'Stinky Bob'. The leaves are skewed fern-like in appearance. The whole plant has a tendency to go red in prolonged strong summer sunshine. It is native and grows in hedge banks, woods, cracks in pavements and on mountain screes. The prostrate form, which grows on shingle or between cracks in stones, is usually hairless and more often red than the straggly form.

It is so variable in appearance that some taxonomists split it into two sub-species, ssp. celticum and ssp. martiimum (the seaside version) but there is so much variation between these that any such a distinction is abandoned by other taxonomists.