Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

SPOTTED GERANIUM

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Geranium maculatum L.

Schermerhorn Park, Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 10-16 inches

Family: Geraniaceae - Geranium Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Stems:

Plants from knobby rhizomes. Stems erect, simple, retrorsely pubescent.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, simple, petiolate, 4 to 8.6 inches long, 3 to 5.5 inches wide; blade depressed-ovate to round in outline, margins deeply palmately divided into 5 to 7 segments, each segment coarsely toothed or cut.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, 3-10-flowered.

Flowers:

Sepals 5, distinct, ovate to lanceolate-ovate, .28 to .48 inch, apex subulate; petals 5, distinct, lavender or rose-purple, obovate, .48 to .7 inch, apex truncate to obtuse; stamens 10; styles 5, fused below, forming stylar column .8 to 1.2 inch; stigmas 5.

Fruits:

Schizocarps, fusiform, separating at maturity into 5 sections, carpel beak coiled outward when dry, 1 seed per carpel; seeds brown, ellipsoid to ovoid, .12 to .16 inch, spreading- or appressed-hirsute.

Habitat:

Moist, rich, maple-basswood and oak-hickory woods

Distribution:

East 1/6 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Spotted geranium was used by many eastern Native American tribes to treat a wide range of medical conditions including treatment of open wounds and canker sores. An infusion of roots was taken for diarrhea and toothaches and a decoction of roots for heart conditions and venereal disease.

Comments:

Geranium, crane, alluding to the long fruit, and maculatum, spotted.

Spotted geranium