Geranium pulchrum

Geranium pulchrum, previously scientifically G. lanuginosum, is a much-branched shrublet reaching heights around 1,2 m. The stems are silky, the lower ones later woody and up to 1 cm in diameter.

The leaves are somewhat palmately five- to seven-lobed but not to the base. The margins are acutely and unevenly toothed. The blades are silver-haired above and thickly velvety below, in picture pale-channelled on the lobes. Leaf diameter is about 12 cm and the petioles that hold them up in mostly horizontal positions are longer than the leaves.

The species distribution is inland in the northeast of the Eastern Cape and in the southwest of the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg near to and on the Lesotho border.

The habitat is marshy, montane grassland, streambanks and drainage lines. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).