Pelargonium trifidum

Pelargonium trifidum used to be called P. fragile and before that P. tripartitum. Fragility is still suggested by the Afrikaans common name of maklikbreekmalva (easily breaking pelargonium). The tripartitum specific name referred to the lobed leaf shape.

This is a sprawling, reseeder shrublet that grows to 60 cm, occasionally 1 m, the stems brittle. Young and upper stems are soft, old ones at the base woody.

The species occurs widespread in the south of South Africa, from Worcester in the Western Cape to Peddie in the Eastern Cape, growing on dry slopes. This plant was seen in the southern Cape near Van Wyksdorp, about the centre of its distribution range.

The habitat is scrubveld in clayey soils, the plants often enmeshed among spekboom and guarri. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).