Early this spring those leaves appeared in a wooded valley, under the trees near a small stream. Beautiful leaves, a bit shiny, on reddish creeping stems hidden under fallen leaves.
What plant is this? Difficult to say, especially when you see no flower. The leaves look a bit like those of Boston Ivy, but not exactly. Also Crane's Bill species can have this kind of leaves, only the plant does not look at all like other Crane's Bills known in Dordogne.
Some week laters, flower buds appeared.
And those really look like Crane's Bill buttons. But which one? Not that easy when there are no fruits and flowers that can help with identification. Some searches in floras and on the web result in Knotted Crane's Bill (Geranium nodosum) as a diagnosis; the plant has all caracteristics and also some particularities of this species.
Wait and see. There will be flowers.
They are a pale lavender-pink, with some purple stripes. Now there is less doubt, it really seems to be Knotted Crane's Bill.
Knotted Crane's Bill is a plant frow lower mountainous regions, and it has not been seen in Dordogne recently. It is sometimes found in the neighbouring Lot department, but it grows mostly in the lower reaches of Alps and Pyrenees. Perigord is not that mountainous. But the spot here, a shadowy not too dry valley on calcareous soil could match. Another possibility could be this is not a really wild plant but one escaped from a garden.
From where comes this plant? Does it grow here since a long time?
Is it possible it is a really wild plant, but that nobody has found it until now? Yes, it is an isolated spot and this is not exactly the kind of plant that jumps to the eye; the flowers are not that noticeable. No one ever comes here, except maybe hunters in winter.
Other rare plants thrive in this little valley, a sure sign you can find here a combination of environmental factors that is or has become rare. Like soil caracteristics, vegetation, (micro)climat), undisturbed-ness. It is possible this place has not been touched by developments (often under human influence) that changed habitats elsewhere, like plantations, changes in water quality, clearing, and that species could survive here.
Knotted Crane's Bill is cultivated as an ornamental plant since long, and Perigord has known a more dense population as today. This plant could have arrived with garden detritus, or grown from seeds from a garden plant, or even be planted long ago. Nearby there are ruins of an old water mill, and the stream has been managed in former centuries. If it is cultivated, you would expect other signs of human occupation, other cultivated plants. But here are none, so it is all speculation.
Whatever, Knotted Crane's Bill is here, and it is flourishing.