Pelargonium tricolor- meaning three coloured flowers.
This remarkable species with its natural three coloured petals resemble that of a pansy which grows wild in areas of the Eastern and Western Cape in Langeberg, Swartberg and the Outeniqua mountains under taller plants for shade. It grows in Zone 2 (winter rain without frost) and Zone 3 (the Karoo area-winter rain with light frost)
Pelargonium tricolor is a low growing shrub with greyish green leaves, long and ellipse in shape and unevenly toothed. Each flowing stalk contains about 2-4 flowers, the lower petals are mainly white while the upper petals usually contain three colours of white,pink and deep red.
When this plant grows in shade the flowers are usually larger and more showy, but when it grows in full sun the flowers are smaller in size.
During the late 1700s Francis Masson collected this species during his travels to Africa which was then brought back to the UK. In 1958 the hybrid cultivar “Splendide” was created from this species and crossed between Pelargonium Ovale named by the Royal Horticultural society, other names of this hybrid include P. violareum and P.violaceum.
Pelargonium Species world 