Geranium and pelargonium: features and differences

Pelargonium and geranium are two common and famous plants among flower growers. They do not go deep into the jungle of classification and confuse names. The flowering plants that adorn both the window in the apartment and the garden bed in the country are called geraniums. Florists do not think that this is fundamentally wrong.

Geranium and Pelargonium belong to the same family - Geranium. In the 19th century, the English botanists George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker classified them as different species in their classifications. According to the modern classification from The Plant List databases, the family consists of 841 species in 7 genera, 2 of which are Pelargonium and Geranium.

Not all botanists considered pelargonium and geranium to be related crops. The Dutch biologist Johannes Burman saw them in different families in the middle of the 17th century. His point of view was contrary to the classification previously proposed by the famous naturalist Karl Linnaeus. Due to the difference of opinion in scientific circles, flower growers confused geranium with pelargonium even then: pelargonium grew on the windows in apartments, and they called them geraniums.

Pelargonium and geranium do not have much in common. For many, the only and main similarity is the assignment to one family with two nuances:

• Geraniums are the most numerous genus (about 400 species);
• Pelargoniums are the most ubiquitous (Australia, Asia Minor, South Africa and Transcaucasia) and a famous genus.

The similarities in appearance are not striking and are known only to specialists.

In a fertilized plant, the pistil stretches out and resembles the beak of a crane. Therefore, the plants got their names: translated from the Greek words pelargos and geranos mean "stork" and "crane", respectively.

Florists notice other similar features in flowers:

• geranium and pelargonium have the same erect stems;
• for leaves covered with medium-sized hairs, alternating arrangement on the stem is characteristic;
• blooming flowers emanate a wonderful aroma;
• plants are characterized by vitality, unpretentious care, love of the sun and simple reproduction.

Although there are many similarities between the bushes, there is also a difference. Experienced flower growers know her.

• It is impossible to cross geranium and pelargonium. By crossing plants, botanists do not get seeds. All due to the fact that they have different genetic codes.
• Geranium was first discovered in the temperate zone in the Northern Hemisphere, and pelargonium in the southern regions. Therefore, the first blooms if the room temperature does not rise above + 12 ° C, and the second withers away during such wintering.
• It is not necessary to leave pelargonium on the window in the summer if there is a gazebo or loggia. With the first frosts, they bring the pot with it into the house and put it in its original place until next summer. Geranium grows and hibernates successfully in open ground without shelter. But this method of growing is not suitable for the Far Eastern, northern regions with harsh climatic conditions.

The difference in the use of geranium and pelargonium is based on the fact that they belong to different genera in the Geranium family and have different characteristics. When grown outdoors, geraniums are planted in small groups in the country or in the front garden next to the house.

Geraniums fill the voids in the flower bed, ennoble areas in the shade where other flowering plants are hard to take root, and green up the hills, digging into the soil with strong roots. Pelargoniums are often bred as houseplants. Rarely they are planted in the beds for the summer, terraces or loggias are landscaped with their help.

Despite the fact that pelargonium and geranium have similarities in appearance, there are still more differences. Being a southern beauty, pelargonium has not adapted to the Russian climate. She is bred at the window. On the first warm days (when there is confidence that there will be no frost), they take out the flowerpot with her on the veranda or loggia, and in the fall they bring it back into the room and put it on the window.

Pelargonium is pretentious about the quality of lighting: the better it is, the richer the flowering.

Sometimes the sunlight isn't enough. If you do not supplement pelargonium with fluorescent lamps, it will not bloom.

Blooming pelargonium has irregular buds, with 3 lower petals smaller than 2 upper ones. They form large inflorescence umbrellas. The color of the buds depends on which species this or that representative of the genus belongs to. They can be monochromatic (white, dark red, pink) or two-colored. Blue, purple and blue buds will never bloom on pelargonium.

The genus Geranium is numerous. In the forest and on lawns, there are wild representatives of it with blue and purple buds, and in the squares - garden (varieties "Gruzinskaya", "Melkotychinkovaya", "Ash") with a different color.

They have 5 or 8 correctly positioned petals. They are either single or with a half-umbel inflorescence.

Gardeners like geraniums because of their simplicity. It will not die in the open field in the cold winter, even if you do not cover it with a white non-woven covering material (agrotex, spantex). It is left for the winter, without pruning the leaves in the fall.

Plants are taken care of differently. What the geranium will carry will be the doom for the pelargonium. Below is a comparison table for clarity.

For an illustrative video about cultural differences, see below.