Flora of New Zealand Series

Perennial herbs or soft-wooded subshrubs, rarely annual, sometimes with tuberous roots, usually aromatic; stems sometimes succulent. Lvs cauline, usually opposite and petiolate, entire to finely dissected, often ± succulent; stipules often brown and scarious. Fls 2-many, in pedunculate umbels; bracts few to many, sometimes coloured. Sepals 5, imbricate, connate at base, with dorsal sepal forming a nectariferous spur adnate to the pedicel. Petals (2)-5, clawed or sessile, usually unequal with upper 2 larger and more conspicuously coloured. Stamens 10, 2-7 fertile, others reduced to staminodes, connate at base. Ovary 5-locular, with 2 ovules per loculus, hirsute; style long. Fr. with beak, the outer part of style separating to form 5 long awns which remain attached to the mericarps; awns spirally-twisted, sometimes spine-like, coiling upon dehiscence. Mericarps 1-seeded, tapering, often spine-tipped.

250-280 spp., especially South Africa, a few in Australia and extending to E. Africa and S.W. Asia. Native sp. 1, naturalised 5 and 4 cultivated hybrids.

A number of South African spp., hybrids and cvs of Pelargonium are grown throughout N.Z. and are amongst our most showy and abundant ornamental plants. They are xeromorphic, wind- and salt-tolerant and long persist in neglected and abandoned gardens, especially in shady areas by the coast. In certain parts of the country, notably in Whakatane, Wanganui, Napier Hill, some suburbs of Wellington, the hills behind Nelson City and the Port Hills, Christchurch, pelargoniums (commonly called geraniums) have been planted in abundance and now are a characteristic feature of the drought-prone volcanic slopes. Regeneration from seed is uncommon but there is vegetative regeneration from severed shoots lodging in crevices. The taxa described below fall into 2 main horticultural groups: the large-flowered more ornamental pelargoniums and the scented-leaved pelargoniums which mostly have small fls.