Pelargonium glutinosum shiny leaves

The flowers of Pelargonium glutinosum may also look like these, seen in the Rooiberg of the southern Cape. The top marking on the upper petals is just a deeper pink blotch here, instead of the couple of dark magenta lines as in the other photo posted in this Album. The line markings lower down on the upper petals are nearly parallel here with tiny branches that are not seen on all flowers of the species; the space between them not as white in this case.

This flower variability goes even further as one compares more specimens from different regions within the distribution area. By looks alone one may become confused between intraspecies and interspecies variations. And then there still are the forms, variations and subspecies that have gained credence in the plant names.

The pink and white filaments of the flowers on this plant are quite long. So is the style with its branched stigma. The flower is about 2 cm in diameter and the calyx tube about 1 cm in length. There may be up to eight flowers in one umbel.

The shine on the leaves is quite noticeable here, reminding of the common name of taaiblaarmalva (sticky leaf pelargonium) (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; www.plantzafrica.com).