Pelargonium ×asperum Willd.
Soft-wooded subshrub up to c. 75 cm tall, strongly aromatic, densely hairy. Stems with hairs deflexed. Stipules c. 1 cm long, ovate, acuminate. Petioles of lower lvs to > 8 cm long. Lamina to c. 7 × 10 cm on flowering plants, ± triangular, deeply divided into 3 lobes; lobes toothed and sinuate, rough above; 2 side lobes to c. 2 cm across, each with a secondary lobe near base; terminal lobe to c. 2.5 cm across, with a pair of secondary lobes. Umbels c. 10-flowered, densely covered in glandular hairs; peduncles 2-6 cm long; pedicels 1-6 mm long. Sepals 8-12 mm long, elliptic-lanceolate, green, densely hairy; calyx spur c. 3 mm long. Corolla pink; upper 2 petals 1-1.6 × 0.5-0.8 cm, with ± prominent purple markings and white central patch, and claw well developed; lower 3 petals 0.9-1.4 × 0.25-0.5 cm, with purple median line in lower 1/2, and claw not well differentiated. Style and stigmas becoming rose. Mericarps not seen.
N.: coastal areas and offshore islands; S.: Nelson City, Gore Bay (N. Canterbury), Banks Peninsula.
South Africa 1869
Warm hill slopes and cliffs, coastal habitats.
FL Jan-Dec.
This hybrid is very commonly cultivated and is the commonest of the scented-leaved geraniums to occur wild. It apparently spreads vegetatively - ripe mericarps have not been observed. Its parents are P. graveolens Aiton, which has a soft lf indumentum and broader lf lobes, and P. radens H. Moore (often known as P. radula) which has finely dissected lvs with linear lobes. Most plants grown in N.Z. as P. graveolens are hybrids or represent other spp.; one possible exception is a wild collection (CHR 362364, Hokianga County, North Auckland, Wright, 11.11.1978). Most records of P. radula, and the only record of P. quercifolium wild in N.Z., are based on specimens of P. × asperum.
