About Geraniums   The Family Tree

Geraniums are just one of the members of the family Geraniaceae. Pelargonium are also a member of the same family so that confusion has arisen by both of them being referred to as Geraniums! This occurred because Linnaeus, the famous botanist and plant hunter in his Species Plantarum (1753), did not accept that  Pelargoniums were distinct from Geraniums and in fact included all plants we now call Erodiums as well. It was not until 1789 that L'Heritiers's work published in William Aiton's Hortus Kewensis  carried the botanical world in accepting that they were seperate genera. Nothing subsequently has changed the publics' attitude so that the more popular Pelargoniums remain known as Geraniums!
Geraniums are distributed worldwide and, depending on the species, will grow in almost any condition.

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 © Andrew Norton 2001                                   10 October 2004