Pelargonium triste flower buds

These Pelargonium triste buds have some pale yellow to cream petal back colour showing through between the margins of the long, reddish-purple sepals. The sepals are narrowly oblong, tapering to acute tips. The calyx tube may reach 3,5 cm in length.

The inflorescence developing here is covered overall in whitish, downy hairs, particularly long on the curved peduncle at the top. A yellow collar of long bracts with recurving tips surrounds the pedicels of the umbel. The bracts are more than half as long as the pedicels at this stage.

This species is thought to be the first South African Pelargonium that came into cultivation (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; www.plantzafrica.com).