Fam. 75. Geraniaceae Juss. Geranium Family 



Winter annual, biennial or perennial herbs; leaves alternate or basal, lobed or 

 divided, stipulate; inflorescence cymose or a solitary flower; flowers perfect, regular 

 or nearly so, 5-merous, hypogynous; sepals imbricated in the bud, persistent; glands 

 of the disk 5, alternate with the petals; stamens (counting the sterile filaments) as 

 many as or commonly twice as many as the sepals, when as many then opposite 

 the sepals; ovary at base with 5 equal lateral lobes; carpels 2-ovuled, 1 -seeded, 

 when mature separating elastically with their long styles from the elongated axis. 

 A family of about 5 genera and some 750 species of temperate and subtropical 

 regions. 



1. Geranium L. Cranesbill 



Annual or perennial herbs with much-branched stems and pinnate or palmately 

 lobed petiolate leaves; flowers usually in pairs on a slender peduncle and slender 

 pedicels that are subtended by narrow bracts; stamens 10 or rarely 5, all with per- 

 fect anthers, the 5 longer ones with glands at their base and alternate with the 

 petals; stylar portions usually remaining attached by their apex to the summit of 

 the torus. 



Consisting of about 500 species mainly in temperate regions; many are used 

 as ornamentals. 



The seeds of geraniums are eaten by birds and rodents such as squirrels and 

 chipmunks while browsers eat the plant. 



1. Stylodia 3-5 mm. long; petals whitish or purple-tinged; leaves sharply incised, 



the lobes and teeth acute to acuminate; filaments reddish-purple 



1. G. Richardsonii. 



1. Stylodia 6-7 mm. long; petals purplish-pink to lavender; leaves usually not 

 sharply incised, the lobes and teeth obtuse to acute; filaments 

 pinkish-buff' 2. G. eremophilum. 



1. Geranium Richardsonii Fisch. & Trautv. Fig. 505. 



Perennial; stems erect or ascending, 2.5-7 dm. high, usually simple, glabrous 

 or sparingly glandular-pubescent; leaves thin, 3-15 cm. broad, 3- to 7-parted; leaf 

 divisions incised to toothed or lobed, sparsely strigose on the upper surface and 

 on the veins beneath; pedicels slender, 1-2 cm. long, glandular-pubescent, the 

 glands usually purple; sepals awn-tipped, 8-12 mm. long, the outer ones more or 

 less glandular-pubescent at least below; petals white with pink or purple veins, 

 rarely flushed with pink, 1-1.8 cm. long, pilose within for about half their length; 

 filaments 6-9 mm. long, reddish-purple, short-pilose about three fourths their 

 length; mature stylar column 2-2.5 cm. long, pubescent and with interspersed 

 glandular-villous hairs; stylodia yellowish, 3-5 mm. long; carpel bodies sparingly 

 pubescent, glandular-hispid on the keels; seeds 2.5-3.5 mm. long, coarsely 

 reticulate. 



Moist soils in coniferous forests, wet meadows, seepage areas about lakes and 

 along streams, marshes at head of lakes and crevices of boulders, in N. M. (wide- 

 spread in mts.) and Ariz. (Apache to Coconino, s. to Cochise and Pima cos.), 

 Apr.-Oct.; S.D. to B.C., s. to N.M., Ariz, and s. Calif. 



2. Geranium eremophilum Woot. & Standi. 



Perennial with a slender branched caudex; stems tufted, slender, weak, divari- 

 cately branching, suberect to decumbent, 4-7 dm. long, finely retrorsely pubescent; 

 basal leaves with retrorsely pubescent petioles 4-6 cm. long, pentagonal in outline, 

 2.5-4 cm. wide, finely appressed-pubescent, obtuse to truncate at base, 3- or 5-lobed 

 with the rhombic-cuneate lobes 3-toothed and obtuse to acute; cauline leaves 



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