Pelargonium cordifolium

Pelargonium cordifolium, the heart-leaved pelargonium or sometimes the heart-leaved storksbill, is a single-stemmed, erect and spreading, aromatic shrub reaching heights from 1 m to 1,5 m. Mature plants have branched, woody lower stems. The plant does not resprout after veld fires.

The flowers of P. cordifolium grow in umbel-like clusters. A flower measures about 4 cm across. The calyx tube is more than 1 cm long. Flower colour varies in shades of pink, dark pink, magenta to maroon, with dark purple line markings on the two bigger petals of the upper lip. These bigger petals are broadly rounded and curve backwards. The lower three small ones are unmarked, straight and distinctively narrow with sharp or rounded tips. The flowering season is long, from mid-winter to mid-summer, peaking during spring.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape along the coast and inland from Bredasdorp eastwards to Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape.

The habitat is sheltered places in moist, sandy soil on fynbos mountain slopes, in Albany thicket and grassland near streams. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).