Geranium solanderi

A very soft, herbaceous, spreading/creeping perennial herb that grows to about 0.2 m tall and about 1 metre wide with a basal taproot; often forming ground-covering colonies by rooting at the nodes.

It has a very widespread and natural distribution in NSW, and Australia for that matter. It can be found commonly across the much of the coast, tablelands,western slopes and western plains, virtually from border to border on the coast, tablelands and slopes, sometimes with patchy records, extending out to Griffith, Deniliquin and Swan Hill, north to Yathong Nature Reserve, and to the west of Moree. It extends into Queensland, along the coast to around Biloela and west of here to near Tambo. It grows through much of Victoria, with the exception of the north-west section. It is found over most of Tasmania as well as the islands of Bass Strait. It is common in South Australia, from the Victorian border around Mount Gambier and then with a disjunction to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island, north to Mawson Plateau, then to the west between Whyalla and Penong. It then occurs in the south-west of Western Australia from between Cervantes and Albany, as well as around Esperance. It is also native to New Zealand.

It is generally found in dry and wet sclerophyll woodland and forest as well as grasslands and even paddocks, as well as disturbed bushland edges, on all soil types.

The taproot is swollen and often shaped like a narrow turnip – orange-brown in colour.

Stems and leaves are generally softly hairy.

Geranium spp. have simple leaves which can be arranged oppositely or alternately. In this species, leaves are opposite, palmatisect in shape with a mostly circular lamina, dissected into 5 to 10 lobes which each have toothed margins or secondary lobes in the upper sections; to 3 cm long and 5 cm wide; light to mid green, or dark green; on petioles to 5 cm long.

Geranium spp. have 5-merous flowers with 5 sepals and petals and with 10 stamens surrounding 1 carpel (bisexual); arranged in terminal umbels / cymose umbels or otherwise solitary or in pairs. In this species, flowers are in pairs or rarely solitary, on peduncles to 4 cm long and then pedicels to 5 cm long; each flower up to 20 mm across, bright pink in colour with yellow veins and yellow anthers; occurring most of the year but mostly in late winter to early summer.

Geranium spp. produce a fruit termed a mericarp (small woody nutlet) which splits open to expose the seeds. In this species, the mericarps are linear, to 25 mm long, with stiff hairs, releasing black seeds containing pits.