Pelargonium spinosum grey stems and spines

The much-branched stems of Pelargonium spinosum become whitish grey with age, sparsely leaved in the photo and armed with many flat-tipped spines. The spines are the persistent and hardened leaf petioles (stalks) that gave the species its name, spinosum.

Apart from becoming well above 1 m in height, the branches may spread to a bushy shape of more than 2 m in diameter, one of the largest pelargoniums of the arid northwest of South Africa (Frandsen, 2017; Le Roux, et al, 2005; www.bihrmann.com; www.pelargonium.si).