GERANIUML.CRANESBILLS

GERANIUML. - CRANESBILLS

Scientific Description:

Perennial, biennial or annual herbs. Leaves usually basal and cauline, never longer than broad, palmately lobed or dissected. Flowers actinomorphic. Peduncles 2−1-flowered. Stamens usually 10 (rarely 5, with 5 staminodes), the outer opposite the sepals. Nectar glands 5. Ovary 5-lobed with a long subterminal style. Fruit long-beaked, the outer part of the style separating into 5 long awns that often curve upwards from the base but are never spirally twisted below. Mericarps often releasing the seeds, sometimes ridged but without apical pits (foveoles).

Reference:

Davis PH (1967). Geranium L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2: 451.

Public Description:

Geranium, known as “cranesbills”, is a genus of perennial, biennial or annual herbs, and is distributed throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, but mostly in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region. There are approximately 415 species in the world and 39 species (39 taxa) in Türkiye. The flowers are white, pink, purple or blue in color, often with distinctive veining. The palmately cleft leaves are broadly circular in form. Many hybrid cultivars are used as ornamental plants.

References:

Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geranium /, Accessed date: 13.02.2016.

Anonymous 2 (2016). http://www.britannica.com/plant/geranium-plant-genus-Geranium, Accessed date: 13.02.2016.

Anonymous 3 (2016). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Geraniaceae/Geranium/, Accessed date: 13.02.2016.

Ekim T (2012). Geranium L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 517–520.