Pelargonium griseum

Pelargonium griseum, commonly dassiebuchu or in Afrikaans sinkingsbos (neuralgia bush), is a much-branched, evergreen shrublet that reaches about 40 cm in height and 30 cm in diameter. Young stems have glandular hairs, older stems become woody and gnarled from leaf base remains, the bark greyish-brown to almost black and peeling.

The flowers grow on upper branchlets, usually a couple of umbel-like groups of two or three flowers, the peduncles from 7 cm to 12 cm long and the flower pedicels 3 mm. The two-lipped flower has two clawed petal pairs. The upper petals are light pink purple with intricate dark pink vein patterns and square to notched upper edges. The lower petals are pale near the base with darker brick-red markings near the tips that recurve, hiding their upper parts from view in picture. 

The stamens are long, protruding in an upturned cluster of creamy filaments and orange anthers, seeming to emerge from below the lower petal pair. There are seven fertile stamens in a flower, four of which are longer, two short and one of medium length.

This is a Karoo species, the distribution ranging from around Beaufort West in the Western Cape to Graaff-Reinet and Lady Grey in the Eastern Cape. The photo was taken in open veld a few kilometres from Beaufort West. Typical long Pelargonium fruits and green, ellipsoid buds were noticed on some of the plants among the flowers. 

The habitat is scrubveld slopes and rocky ridges of Karoo hardeveld. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; iNaturalist; https://www.pelargonium.si; http://redlist.sanbi.org).