Pelargonium triste flower buds

These Pelargonium triste buds have some pale yellow to cream colour on the backs of the petals showing 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 peduncle curve at the top and the sepal tips. A yellow collar of pointed bracts with recurving tips surrounds the pedicels in the developing umbel. The bracts are at this stage more than half as long as the pedicels. The differences in progress of corollas forcing sepals apart shows their urgency.

This species is thought to be the first South African Pelargonium that came into cultivation. It does not feature as prominently in horticulture today among the numerous large-flowered Pelargonium cultivars (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com).