Bloody Cranesbill - The County Flower of Northumberland

Last week after work we jumped in the car and headed up to The Long Nanny at High Newton to see the breeding Little Terns. It was a beautiful evening with the sand dunes studded with wildflowers. We counted at least fifteen species but the one that flashed among the Marram Grass and Sand Sedge was The Bloody Cranesbill or maybe known by its Latin name of Geranium Sanguineum.

Sanguine in the sand is not a bad disposition for a flower when the odds seem stacked against its ability to flourish. The little gangway down to the beach was awash with the solferino pink pop of Bloody Cranesbill marking the route to the sea.

And the special and significant thing about this eruption of colour is that Bloody Cranesbill is the county flower of Northumberland. Thriving in out-of-the-way locations and smothered by sand and whipped by wind on the harshest of Northeast coasts, Geranium sanguineum is as hearty and hard as the Northumbrian hands that built all the castles on the coast. A real Gloria Gaynor of a flower!

A value for money bloom, Bloody Cranesbill can be found in calcareous soils in woodland, grassland and sand dunes between the months of May to October. The feisty little flowers are low growing and profuse with blousy heads on deep green foliage.

The 'bloody' and 'cranesbill-ness' come not from the colour of the flower but from the burning red of the stems in late summer where the blooms fade and the bristly stalks and seed capsules, resembling the beaks of cranes, turn a fiery red as the sun fades and autumn approaches.

They are found in galumphing clumps up and down the Northeast coast, an area of outstanding natural beauty, and are often hugged up by white and buff-tailed bumble bees.

In 2002, in a bid to connect more people to nature, Plantlife, the international conservation charity which works to secure a world rich in wild plants and fungi, carried out a survey to assign 'County Flowers' to each county in the country. In a turn up for the books, the Bloody Cranesbill was elected as oooooaa coooounty flooooowa!