Geranium gardneri
Common names
Gardner’s geranium
Family
Geraniaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Weed of rough pasture, road and streetside verges, derelict land, urban waste, coastal scrub and grassland.
Similar taxa
Geranium homeanum which differs by the larger carrot-smelling leaves with reddish undersides, less hairy stems, larger flowers, and seeds. Has been treated in New Zealand as Geranium solanderi “coarse hairs” but DNA places it not with the G. solanderi complex but with G. potentilloides.
Flowering
Throughout the year
Fruiting
Throughout the year
Life cycle
Perennial. Plants self compatible, seeding freely. Seed dispersed by wind, ballistic projection and possibly attachment (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Year naturalised
c.1860
Origin
Probably Australia, also established on Norfolk Island.
Reason for introduction
Probably a seed contaminant in goods transported by shipping from Australia, as first site of introduction in New Zealand was the Port of Auckland.
Etymology
geranium: From the Greek geranos ‘crane’, the fruit of the plant resembling the head and beak of this bird, hence the common name cranesbill.
gardneri: Commemorating the New Zealand botanist Rhys O. Gardner (1949-)
References and further reading
Thorsen MJ, Dickinson KJM, Seddon PJ. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285–309.