Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Geranium brevicaule
Common name
Alpine Crane's-bill
Family
Geraniaceae
Where found
Grasslands and herbfields of treeless subalpine and alpine areas. Mainly ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park. Rarely elsewhere.
Notes
Perennial herb to 0.1 m high. Stems absent or very short, not longer than the leaves, covered with short, closely appressed, backward pointing hairs, and scattered longer spreading hairs. Leaves basal, in a rosette, nearly round to kidney-shaped, 1–2.8 cm long, sparsely or densely appressed-hairy, with 5–7 broad, often toothed, lobes, the lobes further divided and often toothed, the tips of the lobes pointed. Flowers with 5 red or crimson petals each 4.5–5 mm long. Sepals hairy, 5–6 mm long, fairly narrow, mucro to 1–1.5 mm long. Anthers yellow with a fine blue line. Flowers single. Seeds dark brown, smooth with minute shallow elongated pits (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Flowers Dec.–Apr.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Rare Vic.
VICFLORA description: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/3d9bd8f0-49c1-4f0a-8d54-dfc8508696ab (accessed 16 April 2021)
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