Botanical Family · Geraniales

Geraniaceae

Geranium family

2 speciesOrder Geraniales2+ well-known plants

Herbs and shrubs with aromatic leaves and long beak-like fruit. Includes geranium, pelargonium (common pot plants), and herb robert.

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Representative specimen · Geraniaceae

Key pattern

Aromatic, often deeply lobed leaves on herbs and shrubs; regular, five-petalled flowers ripen into a long, narrow, beak-shaped fruit that springs open explosively, flicking its seeds away from the parent plant.

The distinctive long beak-shaped fruit, resembling a crane's or stork's bill and the source of the family's common names, catapults its seeds outward when it dries and splits.

Identify the species

Which Geraniaceae species is this?

Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Geraniaceae species.

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HabitWhat is the plant's growth habit?

Herb

Shrub

How to recognise the Geraniaceae family

01
Leaf arrangement: alternate/opposite
02
Leaf type: palmate lobed
03
Growth forms: herb/shrub
04
Inflorescence: cymose umbel
05
Fruit: schizocarp with beak

Family identification method

To check whether a plant belongs to Geraniaceae, compare the leaf arrangement, leaf type, flower symmetry, fruit type, and one distinctive marker together. A single feature can mislead; the family pattern is the combination.

Learn the full family-identification method