Geraniaceae
Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs, occasionally tree-like. Lvs alternate or opposite, mostly simple and lobed, less often entire or compound, usually stipulate. Fls in few- to many-flowered umbels, rarely solitary, ⚥, actinomorphic to somewhat zygomorphic, axillary; bracts present or 0. Sepals (4)-5, persistent, usually free, less commonly connate to 1/2 way; uppermost sepal sometimes spurred. Petals usually 5, sometimes 2 or 4, rarely 0, usually imbricate, occasionally distant, rarely contorted. Stamens 2-(3)× as many as petals, sometimes some lacking anthers; filaments free or connate at base; anthers 2-locular, versatile. Ovary superior, (2)-3-5-celled, beaked; ovules 1-2 in each loculus, pendulous; style adhering to beak, with 5 stigmatic branches, the outer part often separating at fruiting and forming 5 long awns attached to the apex of the central rachis. Fr. lobed, dry, with 1 seed per carpel, breaking from the beak into 1-(2)-seeded mericarps with styles usually persistent. Seed with 0 or little endosperm.
Key
11 genera, 700-800 spp., mainly temperate regions and South Africa, a few tropical montane.
As the corolla is very delicate and often ephemeral in this family, fresh material is important for identification.
