New Zealand J. Bot. 43: 564 (2005) APNI
Taxonomic status:Accepted
Occurrence status:Present
Establishment means:Native
Prostrate or scrambling perennial; stems to 2 m long, hispid, with short to long, recurved to spreading hairs, rarely glabrescent; taproot thickened. Leaves reniform (to c. triangular on upper stems), 1–4 cm long, palmatifid into 3–5(–7) broad, 2- or 3-sected, sometimes toothed, primary lobes; ultimate lobes acute, or obtuse and minutely mucronate; upper surface with scattered curved hairs; stipules ovate to triangular, acuminate, often laciniate. Flowers solitary or paired; peduncles 0.5–2.7 cm long, pedicels 0.5–1.6 cm long. Sepals narrow-ovate, 3.5–4 mm long, acute, becoming broad and vertically infolded in fruit, pubescent with minute glandular and eglandular hairs and longer curved or spreading hairs; mucro 0.5–1 mm long, margin translucent, usually ciliate; petals obovate, 4.5–5.5 mm long, truncate to retuse, bright pink at apex grading to white; anthers off-white with fine purple dehiscence lines. Fruits 11–16 mm long; mericarps sparsely pubescent with short recurved to divergent hairs becoming longer toward awn, and scattered long hairs; suture margins not ciliate but sometimes with occasional short hairs; seed rugose with oblong and isodiametric alveolae and occasional membranous deposits. Flowers throughout the year, mostly Oct.–Apr.
CVU, EGL, EGU, GipP, Glep, Gold, HNF, HSF, MonT, NIS, OtP, OtR, SnM, VAlp, VRiv, VVP, WaP. Also SA, NSW, ACT, Tas. Also native to New Zealand. A widespread species occurring predominantly within open-forests and sheltered sites in high-rainfall areas, having the tendency to become weedy.
Smith (1999) commented that Geranium gardneri is clearly differentiated morphologically and chemically (unpublished study) from G. solanderi, apparently characterised by the coarse recurved hairs on stems, petioles and (usually) leaf surfaces, causing plants to be quite rough to touch, and in having a thickened tapering taproot which is never napiform as found in G. solanderi. Hairs on leaf surfaces may be somewhat tuberculate, a feature known to occur occasionally in G. homeanum to which it is closely allied. The name G. gardneri was proposed by de Lange (2005) to recognise this entity. However, Aedo (2017) synonimises G. gardneri with G. solanderi, and notes that his study has confirmed that intermediate character states or a combination of the features diagnostic of each form are common in Australian material. Aedo points out that all of the character states vary in a continuum and independently. Aedo argues that G. solanderi is a very variable species with some remarkable forms not yet fully resolved, and as such any attempt to split it might be premature and unfeasible. G. gardneri is maintained here pending a more detailed study of the Australian plants.
Aedo, C. (2017). Revision of Geranium (Geraniaceae) in the western and central Pacific area, Systematic Botany Monographs 102: 1-240.
Bioregion | Occurrence status | Establishment means | |
---|---|---|---|
Glenelg Plain | present | native | |
Victorian Volcanic Plain | present | native | |
Victorian Riverina | present | native | |
Gippsland Plain | present | native | |
Otway Plain | present | native | |
Warrnambool Plain | present | native | |
Goldfields | present | native | |
Central Victorian Uplands | present | native | |
Northern Inland Slopes | present | native | |
East Gippsland Lowlands | present | native | |
East Gippsland Uplands | present | native | |
Highlands-Southern Fall | present | native | |
Highlands-Northern Fall | present | native | |
Otway Ranges | present | native | |
Monaro Tablelands | present | native | |
Victorian Alps | present | native | |
Snowy Mountains | present | native |
State |
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Western Australia |
South Australia |
New South Wales |
Australian Capital Territory |
Victoria |