Decumbent to ascending perennial; stems to 100 cm long, glabrescent or more or less moderately hairy, the hairs retrorsely appressed, 0.4–0.6 mm long; taproot thickened to slightly napiform or long and narrow, often branched. Leaves orbicular to reniform, 1–4 cm long, palmatisect with 5–7(–9), bifid or trifid, further dissected and often toothed, broad to narrow primary lobes; ultimate lobes truncate to acute; upper surface glabrescent or with sparse, short, curved to appressed hairs; stipules c. triangular, acuminate. Flowers solitary or paired; peduncles 1–4.5 cm long; pedicels 0.8–2.2 cm long; sepals ovate, 5–6 mm long, acute, becoming broad and vertically infolded in fruit, pubescent with short subappressed hairs and some longer spreading hairs, margins narrowly translucent, mucro c. 1 mm long; petals obovate, 6.5–7 mm long, truncate to retuse, pink to bright pink; anthers mauve to lemon with purple dehiscence lines. Fruits 13–16 mm long; mericarps sparsely hirsute with hairs becoming longer toward awn and dorsal rib; suture margins not ciliate; seed brown to dark brown, slightly rugose with small shallow isodiametric alveolae. Flowers Oct.–Mar.
GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGU, HSF, HNF, VAlp. Also ?SA, NSW, ACT. New Zealand. Widespread and common, occurring in damp to seasonally inundated sites, e.g. ditches, drains, road-verges.
Found in both disturbed sites as well as in native vegetation. It's possible that this species is introduced, but attempts to identify the species using ex-Australian accounts of Geranium have been unsuccessful. It has been confused with G. retrorsum because of the retrorse-appressed indumentum, but the leaf-lobes are always broader and roots narrower than those of that species. Closer affinities may be with G. homeanum or G. neglectum. A form of this species collected from Mooramong (near Skipton) differs in having pale pink to almost white petals, a smaller, less leafy habit, and black seeds with obscure alveolae.
