Pelargonium coronopifolium "fragrans"

Pelargonium coronopifolium "fragrans" is an erect or sprawling, tufted shrublet, a cultivar. The resprouting plants reach about 40 cm in height. The lower stems are rough-surfaced from dropped off leaves and stipules.

The leaf shape is ovate, lobed and pleated with toothed margins. The leaf colour is grey-green. The leaves are pungently aromatic, a feature reflected in the cultivar name as well as in one of the overseas marketing features, a promise that the plant “resists deer”. The common name of nutmeg scented pelargonium also has a bearing on this aroma.

The umbel-shaped flower clusters are white with narrow petals that have rounded tips. The pedicels and sepals are purplish and green and sparsely covered in tiny white hairs. The upper two petals have purple line markings near the base; the lower three are clear. The erect stigma in the flower centre among the white stamens has five tiny purple branches. Several stamens don’t have the yellow anthers at their tips, indicating sterility. The plant flowers in summer.

The P. coronopifolium distribution range is in the west of the Western Cape from the Gifberg and the Bokkeveld Mountains to Worcester.

The habitat is dry fynbos slopes in fynbos derived soils. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (iNaturalist; Wikipedia; www.shootgardening.co.uk; www.goodwincreekgardens.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).