Pelargonium alchemilloides

Pelargonium alchemilloides has a common name of pink trailing pelargonium. Trailing the plant does, but pink its flowers are only sometimes. Often white or creamy white, they may also be yellow. A sprawling perennial, it seldom exceeds 30 cm in height, growing from a tuberous or stoloniferous rootstock and resprouting after fire. The Afrikaans name is rankmalva (trailing geranium).

The few-flowered umbel seen here has several buds that still droop. The pedicels will stiffen and straighten upon opening, improving presentation to pollinators. Some whitish hairiness is evident on all the outer parts of the inflorescence, barring the petals.

P. alchemilloides is very widely distribution in nature, ranging from the Western Cape coast and Eastern Cape to the northeast of South African, occurring in all provinces apart from the Northern Cape. And that is not half the geographical story: Beyond the border this Pelargonium grows as far afield in Africa as Kenya and Ethiopia.

The result of a wide distribution is often a varied habitat. It includes grassland, scrub in damp places, stony land and disturbed patches. The plants perform in clayey, loamy as well as sandy soils. Not surprising, the habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Pooley, 1998; Blundell, 1987; iNaturalist; www.fernkloof.org.za; http://redlist.sanbi.org).