Due to changes in names, botanists created a real problem for gardeners today. This article will try to simplify things and clear up the confusion. Through the quirks of plant naming, we now have a plant family, geranium, and a plant species found within that family is also geranium. Talk about confusion! To further complicate things, the plant that most of us grew up calling a geranium--that cheerful resident of the flower box, is really a Pelargonium, although it does belong to the Geranium family.
Until 1996, the Geraniaceae (Geranium) family consisted of 5 genuses. Now it consists of 4 genuses. The geranium genus is often called the true geranium. They are hardy perennials native to temperate climates. This plant genus grows in USDA zones 3-8. These plant have 10 fertile stamens and the flower petals are regular in shape. They are shade tolerant plants.
Erodium are found in many parts of the world including our southwest. These are often grown as rock garden plants but are uncommon at your everyday garden/nursery center.
Pelargoniums have irregular shaped petals and as many as 7 out of 10 stamens are infertile. Pelargonium species are restricted to southern Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and some southern islands. They live in dry, arid climates. Most species are succulents.
Recently the Monsonia and Sarcocaulon genuses were merged because no discernible difference could be discovered to justify different genuses. (Reported in THE AMATEURS DIGEST, Vol.9 Issue 1, May 1997: SARCOCAULON has been formally transferred to the genus MONSONIA. This was first annouced in the South African Journal of Botany 62(6): 345-347 (1996). This example should now properly be called Monsonia. This plant species is primarily grown by plant collectors and are extremely rare in plant commerce. Most collectors have to buy them from specialty nurseries or grow them from seed.
Within each of these 4 families, are many species. The coming series of articles will concentrate only on those species found within the Pelargonium genus. This includes our traditional bedding or porch box plants--the zonal pelargoniums, scented geraniums (pelargoniums, really!) and a number of rarer species.
I'm sure now, that we all agree that early botanists did us no favors in naming both a plant family and a plant genus the same thing. One way writers distinguish the groups is to use geranium (small g) when talking common usage and to use Geranium (capital G) when talking about the plant genus itself. However, it's impossible to "see" the difference in capitalization when speaking. For now, we just have to carefully spell out the difference and maybe some day, people will use "Pelargoniums" properly instead of lumping Pelargoniums and Geraniums in the same group when they are very distinctive plants.
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