ABSTRACT
The genera Geranium and Pelargonium are classified in the family Geraniaceae and like the three other genera included in Geraniaceae they also have a similar elongated fruit with five mericarps, each containing a single seed. When the seeds mature, the mericarps split apart and the plumed seed is released. Monsonia is found mainly in Africa with a few species in Asia. The fleshy stemmed Sarcocaulon is limited to southern Africa where it is called Bushman’s candle. The remaining three genera were included by Linnaeus in the one genus Geranium named from the resemblance of the fruit to a crane’s bill. The true Geranium has a wide distribution throughout the temperate regions of the world but the genus of plants with irregular flowers was later separated from Geranium and named Pelargonium for the Greek word for stork, ‘pelargos’. The third genus, Erodium, mainly found around the Mediterranean, was later separated and renamed from the Greek for ‘heron’. The differences between Geranium and Pelargonium are compared in Table 8.1.
