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Description: Wild geranium is an erect, herbaceous, perennial originating from thick rhizomes to 15 cm in length. Its stems are 2 to 6 dm tall, remotely to densely pubescent with opposite leaves 4 to 10 cm in length by 6 to 16 cm in width. The leaves have 5 to 7 clefts, which are divided into more clefts. Leaves are lobed or toothed and pubescent on both surfaces. The basal leaves and the base of the inflorescence have long petioles while the pair of leaves in the inflorescence are sessile or have petioles less than 1 cm in length. The stipules are linear to lanceolate and 5 to 12 mm in length. The inflorescence is an open cyme with each peduncle terminating with few to several flowers. The sepals of wild geranium are 7 to 10 mm in length excluding the 1 to 3 mm long mucro, which is canescent with long trichomes on the veins and margins. The petals are pink to purplish or rarely white and 1.5 to 2.5 cm in length. The carpel body is 4 to 6 mm in length excluding the beak which is 1.8 to 2.6 cm in length. The stigma is approximately 2 mm in length and the style is approximately 5 mm in length when mature. The beak and carpel body is canescent with some of the trichomes being glandular or long-stipitate. The glabrous seeds of the wild geranium are finely reticulate and 2.5 to 3 mm in length (Carman 2001 and Radford et. al. 1968).
Habitat:
Wild geranium inhabits rich open woods chiefly in the mountains and piedmont, bottomland forests, cove forests. The species is considered to rarely occur on the southeastern Coastal Plain.
Range:
Wild geranium is found from Manitoba, Canada to Massachusetts, south to South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and South Dakota. In the southeastern United States, the species primarily inhabits the mountains and piedmont and is relatively common (Porcher and Rayner 2001), however in the outer limits of its range, such in the case of Louisiana, the species is very rare. In Louisiana, wild geranium is only found in two extreme northern parishes and in one west-central parish (Thomas and Allen 1998).
References
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