Geranium sylvaticum, commonly called Wood Cranesbill or (in North America) Woodland Geranium, is a plant species in the genus Geranium belonging to Geraniaceae

Geraniaceae

Geraniaceae is a family of flowering plants placed in the order Geraniales. The family name is derived from the genus Geranium. It includes both the genus Geranium and the garden plants called geraniums, which modern botany classifies as genus Pelargonium, along with other related genera.There are...

. The Wood Geranium of North America is the related G. maculatum, called "Spotted Cranesbill" or "Wild Cranesbill" in Europe.

Depending on soil conditions, the flowers range from a mauve color to sky blue.

Uses and traditions

It is the county flower

County flowers of the United Kingdom

The following are the flowers selected for the historic counties of the United Kingdom in Plantlife's 2002 "County Flowers" campaign...

 of Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 in the United Kingdom.

The flowers of G. sylvaticum yield a blue-gray dye that was used in ancient Europe to dye war cloaks, believing it would protect them in battle. For this reason G. sylvaticum was called Odin's Grace

Odin

Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

.