Plant Name

Scientific Name: Geranium caespitosum

Common Names: Pineywoods Geranium, Purple Cluster Geranium, Purple Geranium, Purple Wild Geranium, Wild Geranium, Tufted Geranium

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Upland, Mountain. This wildflower grows in mountain meadows, riparian woodlands, and pine forests.

Flower Color: Purplish pink, Pinkish purple, White (rare)

Flowering Season: Late spring, Summer, Early fall

Height: Up to 18 inches (46 cm) tall

Description: The flowers have 5 round-tipped, often reflexed petals, an arching spray of 10 stamens with yellowish to orangish anthers, an elongated style, and 5 pale green, awn-tipped, often reflexed sepals. The petals have darker veins, occasional white streaks, and long, sparse hair near their base. The flowers are followed by beaked seed capsules that resemble a crane bill or stork bill. The leaves are green, hairy, and deeply palmately lobed into 3 main lobes when young and 5 main lobes when mature. The multiple stems are green to reddish in color, branched, sprawling, and glandular-hairy.

The similar Richardson's Geranium (Geranium richardsonii) has white, pale pink, or pale lavender flowers.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Geraniales
Family: Geraniaceae – Geranium family
Genus: Geranium L. – geranium
Species: Geranium caespitosum James – pineywoods geranium

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map
Pineywoods Geranium (Geranium caespitosum) – The Firefly Forest