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Volume I (1961) - Flora of New Zealand Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons
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Geranium L.

GERANIUM L., 1753

Fls paired to solitary, occ. several per peduncle, bracted, regular or nearly so, not spurred; stamens us. 10; seeds 1 per carpel. Dehiscence by carpels curling upward, remaining attached at apex. Herbs or subshrubs with us. palmately lobed, stipulate lvs. Widely distributed genus of some 300 spp.

Key

1
Lvs silvery-hairy; fls ± 2 cm. diam
5. traversii
Lvs not silvery-hairy; fls much smaller
2
2
Stems very short or obsolete; lvs mainly radical
3. sessiliflorum
Stems elongate; cauline lvs several to many
3
3
Stems very slender, prostrate or nearly so; lamina not > 25 mm. diam
4. microphyllum
Stems slender to rather stout, ascending or erect; lamina us. 30-50 mm. or more diam
4
4
Stock very stout, often multicipital; lvs pilose
2. pilosum
Stock slender; lvs glabrate
1. australe

Knuth (Pflanzenr. 53, 1912) distributes our spp. in his sections as follows:

A. Annual herbs with ± slender main root; sect. Columbina-G. dissectum var. glabratum

B. Perennial herbs or subshrubs with stout main root

(1) stems short ± hidden by lvs, peduncles 1-fld, plant low-growing; sect. Andina-G. sessiliflorum

(2) stems elongate, not at all hidden (a) main root much thickened above, napiform, peduncles 2-(1)-fld; sect. Chilensia-G. pilosum (b) main root less thickened, not napiform, peduncles 1-(2)-fld; sect. Australiensia-G. microphyllum, G. traversii

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