Pelargonium album

Pelargonium album is a soft-stemmed, erect to partly reclining herbaceous perennial growing to heights around 40 cm. Young green stems are hairy, the old brown ones glabrous (hairless). The semi-succulent stems show persistent stipule remains.

This is a rare species confined to a small distribution around the Mpumalanga and Limpopo border, near Pilgrim’s Rest towards Graskop.

The habitat is shady rock crevices of dolomitic grassland where it grows in moist, humus rich soil. Forestry in this region may have reduced the plant population, although the habitat population is deemed stable early in the twenty first century (www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).