Geranium L., Sp. Pl. ed.1: 676. 1753; Gen. Pl. 5: 832. 1754; Boiss., Fl. Or. 1: 869; 1867; Hook. f. in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 428. 1874; Knuth., Geraniaceae in Engl. Pflanzenr. Heft. 53 (iv 129): 43. 1912; Webb. in Tutin et al., Fl. Eur. 2: 193. 1968; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 11: 8; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 1.

Annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrublets or shrubs, erect, diffuse or procumbent, joints swollen. Leaves stipulate, petiolate, simple, usually palmately cleft or divided or of triangular outline and divided to the base into 3 or 5 pinnatifid segments. Basal leaves usually forming a rosette; cauline leaves opposite or alternate. Inflorescence terminal or axillary cymose, bracteate. Flowers usually paired or occasionally solitary on peduncle, actinomorphic, rarely somewhat zygomorphic, bisexual, usually 5-merous, hypogynous. Sepals 5, free, imbricate, apex obtuse to caudate. Petals 5, free, sometimes clawed, apex rounded, emarginate; petals alternating with 5 nectariferous glands. Stamens 10, in 2 whorls, outer ones opposite to petals, inner ones alternating with petals, all fertile, rarely reduced to staminodes; filaments flattened, connate at base. Receptacle prolonged upwards in a persistent 5-grooved tapering column. Carpels usually 5, whorled round and adnate to the base of column; ovary 5-locular, with 2 superposed ovules per locule; styles 5, adnate to the column, subsequently distinctly 5-cleft; stigma terminal, simple, linear, ultimately diverging. Fruit a schizocarp, long beaked, splitting into 5 one-seeded mericarps.

360 species

Geranium rotundifolium L., Sp. Pl. ed.1: 676. 1753; Edgew. & Hook. f. in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 432. 1875; Knuth., Geraniaceae in Engl. Pflanzenr. Heft. 53 (iv 129): 55. 1912; Sharma & Kachroo, Fl. Jammu (Illustr.) 2: t. 48. 1983; Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur 184. 2004; Singh & Sharma, Fl. Chamba Dist. 208. 2006; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 11: 14; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 8.

Annual, low growing diffuse herb; stem 30 cm or more tall, erect, not rooting at nodes, with 0.2-1.2 mm patent non-glandular trichomes and 0.2-0.6 mm patent glandular trichomes. Stipules 3-6 mm long, free, lanceolate, reddish-brown, margin white-ciliate. Leaves opposite, petiolate, petioles up to 9 cm long, with patent glandular and non-glandular trichomes; leaf blades up to 1.8 cm x 3.4(-6) cm, palmately cleft into 5-7 segments, margin of lobes crenate, both surfaces pilose with appressed non-glandular and sometimes glandular trichomes. Cymules solitary, 2-flowered; peduncle 1.8-4.5 cm long, pedicels 7-25 mm long on fruiting; peduncle and pedicels with patent non-glandular and glandular trichomes; bracteoles linear- lanceolate. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous, 6-7 mm across, pink-purple. Sepals 5, free, imbricate, 4.5-6 mm x ca. 1.5 mm, ovate, oblong or lanceolate, mucro up to 0.6(-1 mm) long, outside with glandular and non-glandular trichomes, inside glabrous. Petals 5, free, purplish, 5-7 mm x 2-2.5 mm, slightly longer than calyx, erect to patent, obovate, apex rounded, sometimes emarginate, long clawed, claw ca. 2 mm long, both surfaces glabrous or sometimes inside with scattered trichomes. Stamens 10, in 2 whorls, outer whorl opposite to petals, inner ones alternating with petals, all fertile; filaments whitish, lanceolate, 2-2.5 mm, gradually dilated, connate and ciliated towards the base; anthers yellow, 0.5-0.6 mm long. Nectaries 5, hemispheric, glabrous. Receptacle prolonged upwards in a persistent 5-grooved tapering column. Carpels usually 5, whorled round and adnate to the base of column; ovary 5-locular with 2 superposed ovules per loculus; styles 5, adnate to the column, subsequently style distinctly 5-cleft; stigmas reddish. Fruit 1.6-1.8 cm long, erect when immature; schizocarpic, long-beaked (when ripe), the carpels and lower part of styles separate from the column resulting in 5 one- seeded mericarps; the styles coiling upwards with a jerk and ejecting the seeds); mericarps smooth, with a basal callus, with patent non-glandular trichomes; rostrum 1.2-1.3 cm with a 2-3 mm narrowed apex; stigmatic remains 1-1.2 mm. Seeds ca. 2.5 mm x 1.9-2 mm, subglobose, prominently reticulate.

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