The wild Geranium, Geranium carolinianum, Carolina Geranium

After I bought the Geranium pratense 'Hocus Pocus', I noticed a small volunteer Geranium leafed plant in one of our planting beds when I was weeding. I thought it might be interesting to compare a wild Geranium with a cultivated one so I left it alone. The flowers were so tiny as to be inconspicuous from standing height. It was light pink in color. Later the cranesbill remnants of the flower turned a orangeish brown with black seeds and was larger and much more striking than the actual flower.

It is definitely considered a weed and those five black seeds look certainly like they could germinate easily so I'll have to get rid of the plant soon. It was interesting to see just how how different the species can be.

I couldn't see that the seeds and sepal were very hairy with the naked eye but the macro lens revealed just how hairy they are. Apparently the single style is not single at all but 5 separate styles connected to the five black seeds.

The seeds and sepals are actually quite attractive in my mind but the gangly spreading plant is unattractive and untidy so it will have to be pulled. The long petiole is characteristic of the plant as are the very tiny flowers which I missed photographing.

In the upper left corner of the first photo you can see the green sepal and style of the flower soon after blooming, before it turns the nice brown orange color.

Here are a couple of web sites that have more information on the G. carolinianum.

UTexas.edu site.

From the www.missouriplants.com site.