Geranium robustum flower with anthers

The young Geranium robustum has five spreading and angled up petals form a shallow, open bowl, the petals still overlapping at this stage. The base of the bowl is white, the pale purple or lilac petals darkly marked by longitudinal vein lines reaching over halfway up the petal limbs. The petal tips of the flower in picture are rounded and notched or bimodal in shape, but on some plants not notched. The colourful stage is set for the flower’s exhibition of a lifetime.

The bisexual flower is in the stage of male floral parts dominating. This is where stamens introduce their pale anthers on erect filaments in random meetings to peckish pollinators of many kinds. Many of them are butterflies, likely others include honeybees and different bees.

In the bigger scheme of things, there are usually more flowers nearby, slightly older ones, waiting with sticky stigmas at the ready. When the sun is bright, every colourful petal landing pad catches a pollinator eye searching for more food. Uneaten pollen grains inadvertently get brushed off from courier insect bodies onto appropriate floral target spots. This is another of nature’s endless miracles, the “planned” delivery accident (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist).