Pelargonium coronopifolium leaves

The leaves of Pelargonium coronopifolium grow stalked and alternate from the stems. There are reddish brown stipules at the stem bases, present when alternate leaves are grown.

The leaves are linear to narrowly elliptic and green to slightly greyish. There are often irregular marginal teeth towards the leaf tips, the margins entire lower down. The blades narrow gradually into the short petioles, their tips sharply pointed. Some channelling of the leaves is visible in the photo on upper surfaces. Leaf dimensions are about 2 cm to 17 cm long and 1 mm to 7 mm wide.

Such narrow leaves are not a common Pelargonium feature in much of South Africa. They add plant resilience on the arid sandstone slopes where these plants make their living, minimising evaporation from leaves.

A common name of buck’s horn plantain-leaved stork’s bill may be considered descriptive, but this too long name is no longer much heard.

As for the specific name, coronopifolium, the resemblance with the leaves of another plant, Plantago coronopus, or buck’s-horn plantain brought this Pelargonium its name. The name is derived from the Greek words korōnē meaning crow or hook and pous meaning foot, later becoming a Latin botanical descriptor for plants bearing narrow, toothed, or horn-like leaves. And the foot reference, the Greek pous? It was used to describe the Plantago plant leaves that spread like toes or claws of a crow’s foot. Add the Latin word folium, meaning leaf, and a description for the Pelargonium’s leaves resulted (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).