Pelargonium curviandrum has lovely white to cream coloured flowers with dark red feathery marks on the upper narrow petals containing 4 stamens on a long flower stalk.
It is a tuberous plant which is dormant in the Summer months with soft hairy leaves which are oval in shape and grow at ground level forming a rosette of leaves at the base of the stem.
P. curviandrum is native to the Southern Cape in areas of the Little Karoo on mountainsides, sandstone, clay slopes and hill sides
The new 2020 seed catalogue is new available to view via this link https://www.pelargoniumspeciesworld.com/page23.html
There is some extra information added about seed germination and growing pelargonium species.
Pelargonium dodonaei was named in the honour of Rembert dodoens known as the father of botany 1517-1585 as well as other plants including Epilobium dodonaei, comocladia dodonaea, phellandrium dodonaei, smyrnium dodonaei and hypericum dodonaei who wrote several works on botany and herbalism.
Rembert changed the way early botanists thought about plants and also how they were listed, he divided the plant kingdoms into six individual groups based on their characteristics and similarities between plant species and wrote details about how they were used as medicinal herbs and as medicines.
Dodonaei was born in a town in the middle of Antwerp and Brussels known as Mechelen where his father Denis Van Joenickema was Margaret of Austria governor of the Netherland’s personal physician.
Rembert changed his name from Rembert Van Joenckema to Rembert Dodoens meaning “son of Dodo” after his fathers name, he studied at the university of Leuvan specializing in medicine, cosmography and geography from 13 years old.
He married Kathelijne De Bruyn who also had a connection with medicine and had four children together.
After turning down the offer of chairman in the Leuven and as a court physician for King Philip 2nd of Spain, Rembert instead became the court physician to the holy Roman emperor Maximilian 2nd in Vienna and later a professor of medicine at the university of Leiden.
In the honour of the life and work of Dodoens a statue was presented at the Kruidentuin botanical gardens in mechelen.
Pelargonium pseudofumarioides also known as the false fumitory storks bill is a lovely and fascinating plant with finely divided leaves which are mid to darkish green in colour with a reddish tint.
The flowers are light cream to pink in colour usually pinkish in the center with orange stamens, it is a low growing plant with spreading branches ideal for ground cover which has a woody tap root.
This plant is native to the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng where it grows in grasslands and is very hardy which can tolerate frost.
Pelargonium Species world 