Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Geranium potentilloides

Flowering plant (var. potentilloides). Photographer Don Wood, Namadgi National Park, ACT

Flowering plant (var. potentilloides). Photographer Don Wood, Badja Forest Road east of Cooma

Flower and leaves (var. abditum). Photographer Jackie Miles

Line drawings. with (var. potentilloides) leaf; segment of seed case; seeds with surface detail; junction in the flower stalk. d. (var. abditum) leaf; segment of seed case; seeds with surface detail; junction in the flower stalk. e. (var. Subalps as var. 1) leaf; segment of seed case; seeds with surface detail; junction in the flower stalk.

M Moir, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

Soft Cranesbill, Cinquefoil cranesbill

Family

Geraniaceae

Where found

var. abditum:  Woodland, heath, grassland, and rocky areas, at higher altitudes. Blue Mountains, tablelands, ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park.

var. potentilloides:  Dry forest, woodland, grassland, cold mountain gullies, stream banks, and moist sites. Chiefly tablelands and ACT at lower elevations than the other two subspecies.

var. Subalps (N.G. Walsh 4179) Vic. Herbarium:  Subalpine woodland. Alpine herbfields, grassland, and rocky sites. Kosciuszko National Park.

Notes

Perennial herb to 0.5 m high or prostrate with stems to 1 m long, often rooting at the nodes. Base covered with dry old leaf bases and leaf stalks. Stems hairy with backward pointing or appressed hairs, sometimes almost hairless. Basal leaves not persistent in summer, larger than the stem leaves. Stem leaves opposite each other, 0.5–4.5 cm long, 10-50 mm wide, hairy, lower surface often paler and purplish, with 5–7 lobes again three-lobed, sometimes further dissected or toothed, tips of the lobes blunt to pointed. Flowers pink with translucent veins, to white, with 5 petals each 4–8.5 mm long. Sepals 3.5-6 mm long, 1-2.5 mm wide, margins occasionally translucent, mucro 0.3–1 mm long. Hairs on the flower stalks just under the flowers point down. Flowers single, rarely in pairs.

var. abditum:  Stems and leaf stalks with short to long backwardly curved or appressed hairs. Bracteoles usually towards the base of the flower stalk. Seeds black with large pits (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Usually smaller and more compact than var. Subalps (N.G. Walsh 4179) Vic. Herbarium. Flowers Nov.–Mar.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

Rare Vic.

var. potentilloides: Stems and leaf stalks with short to long backwardly curved or appressed hairs. Bracteoles about halfway along the flower stalk. Seeds brown with small pits (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Flowers most of the year.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

var. Subalps (N.G. Walsh 4179) Vic. Herbarium:  Stems and leaf stalks thickly covered with minute spreading or backwardly pointing curved hairs, sometimes almost hairless. Bracteoles about halfway along the flower stalk. Seeds red-brown to dark brown with inconspicuous shallow pits (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Flowers Nov.–Apr.

Data deficient Vic (as Geranium potentilloides var. 1)

VICFLORA description of species and key to subspecies:  https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/40cb2d0f-5b9d-49f1-8fd2-dac1daa5446e (accessed 16 April 2021)