Common name: Rough Crane's-bill
Geranium gardneri de Lange APNI* Synonyms: Geranium sp. 4 sensu Smith & Walsh Fl. of Vic. (1999) APNI*
Description: Prostrate or scambling perennial; stems to 2 m long, hispid, with short to long, recurved to spreading hairs, rarely glabrescent; taproot cylindrical and tapering distally (turnip-shaped).
Leaves reniform (c. triangular on upper stems), 1–4 cm long, palmatifid into 3–5-(7) broad, 2- or 3-sected, sometimes toothed, primary lobes; ultimate lobes acute, or obtuse and minutely mucronate; upper surface with scattered curved hairs; stipules ovate to triangular, acuminate, often laciniate.
Flowers usually solitary or sometimes paired; peduncles 0.5–2.7 cm long, pedicels 0.5–1.6 cm long, with hairs retrorse-reflexed or spreading. Sepals narrow-ovate, 3.5–4 mm long, acute, becoming broad and vertically infolded in fruit, pubescent with minute glandular and eglandular hairs and longer curved or spreading hairs; mucro 0.5–1 mm long, margin translucent, usually ciliate; petals obovate, 4.5–5 mm long, truncate to retuse, bright pink at apex grading to white; anthers off-white with fine purple dehiscence lines.
Fruits 11–16 mm long; mericarps sparsely pubescent with short recurved to divergent hairs becoming longer toward the awn, and scattered long hairs; suture margins not ciliate but sometimes with occasional short hairs; seeds dark brown, rugose with oblong and isodiametic alveolae (with equal- to elongate-sided pits) and occasional membranous deposits.
Flowering: Flowers throughout the year but mostly October–April
Distribution and occurrence:
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, NT, CT, ST, NWS, CWS, SWS
Other Australian states: Vic. Qld S.A.
Text by Louisa Murray
Taxon concept: Smith, L.P., (1999) Gerarium in Flora of Victoria, v. 4 p. 227
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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