Geranium biuncinatum

Text & photo Rein ten Klooster, The Netherlands

In August 1996 I bought a small plant, not very attractive, but with a unknown (for me) name: G. biuncinatum. It did not flower but produced a kind of small balloons, in which seed was formed. My first thought was: no flower, no pollination no fertile seed. I collected the mericarps, some fell in the pot and I left there. In November the plant died and I found two seedlings in the same pot. I was curious about what it was and re-planted them in 5cm plastic pots in a mixture of potting soil and sharp sand. In my little greenhouse where I maintained a minimum temperature of +5 C, the plants grew slowly,even in the winter. In February they grow to a lenght of 20 cm and started to make the same small balloons as the mother-plant. To my surprise on the 9th of March I found one of the plants with a beautiful flower on top, purplish red with a dark heart, with petals of 8mm lenght.The flower is identical with the one in P. Yeo's "Hardy Geraniums", which ensures to me that it is really G. biuncinatum. In the bubble-shaped and crumpled-looking mericarps that I collected I found nice oval seeds that I have sown in early February in a mixture of peat & sand.  In a small box slightly heated, they germinated after a week; I repotted half in March. These lovely plants flowered up to the end of May, sometimes with 5 or 6 flowers. The plants produce many seeds. Before sowing I open the mericarp with a sharp scalpel, there is one seed in the centre of each mericarp, which can be freed easily.The plant needed to be supported with small sticks and reached a height of about 30cm.

(The Geraniaceae Group News,Summer 1997, Issue 66)

See also a picture of the related species G. ocellatum

All images are © the photographer