Homeland and history of geranium

Geranium is an amazingly beautiful plant that looks great in parks and gardens, in nature it can grow in sunny glades and in a dense forest, many varieties are even adapted for cultivation at home. Geraniums grow all over the world, there are about 400 varieties of this plant. Many beliefs and myths are associated with this plant, therefore, the history of the appearance and distribution of an unusual flower is of particular interest.

Wild geranium was brought to our lands from England in the middle of the 17th century, which is why everyone decided that the foggy coast was the birthplace of an exotic flower - but this is a misconception. Despite its cold hardiness, geranium actually comes from the southern regions - from India and the coast of Africa. It was from there that it was brought to the countries of the Old World, where botanists began to develop new interesting varieties on its basis, including those that are widely used today in garden design and home gardening.

In the historical homeland of the flower, the weather conditions are quite difficult - Most of the time there is a hot, scorching sun baking there, and dry periods are replaced by seasons of heavy rain, which literally flood the earth for long days and even weeks.

In other regions, no more than 15% of geraniums grow, so the culture can be found in Australia and New Zealand, as well as on Madagascar and the California coast of America.

As soon as geranium was first brought to Europe, the nobles immediately began to use it to decorate windows in their palaces, and the ladies plucked inflorescences to decorate hairstyles, hats and necklines. Due to its unpretentiousness and ease of reproduction, this beautiful plant soon migrated to the homes of ordinary people.

But back to the beginning of the story. As we have already mentioned, this culture originally grew in the southern part of the African continent. At that time, sailors and travelers sailed the seas and oceans, discovering new lands. Often they were only interested in the culture and features of the infrastructure of the territories where they sailed. But many expeditions aimed to study the flora and fauna characteristic of a particular area - that is why such an exotic flower as geranium simply could not remain unnoticed by them.

Botanists immediately turned their attention to the exceptional beauty of the inflorescence, and they immediately had a great desire to adapt this culture for growth and development in other weather conditions. This is how geranium began to spread throughout the globe, gradually adapting to the most diverse and sometimes difficult climate in which it found itself. Today it is one of the most cold-resistant flower crops, so many find it so surprising that she was born in hot countries.

The flower reached Russia only at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Scientists-breeders did not pass by geraniums, who began to develop the most interesting decorative flowering varieties of the variety on its basis. Each of the plants obtained differs in its shape, color palette and size, but in any case, each of them invariably pleases the eye and effectively decorates any area wherever it turns out.

It should be noted that not all types of geraniums were tamed by humans, many of its varieties remained to grow in the wild, gradually spreading through forests and meadows, populating marshy and steppe regions - they staunchly fought against natural factors unfavorable for them, became stronger and stronger.

The number of geranium varieties today is approaching 400. Flowers adapted for life at home are unpretentious and can delight with their flowering throughout the year.

The leaf plates are green, velvety, asymmetrically dissected, in most cases palmate-separate or palmate-lobed, varieties with 3-5 pinnate leaves are less common.

The flowers are collected in inflorescences, they consist of five rounded, almost equal in size corolla petals. The color can be pink, white, purple, blue, as well as purple and red.

The fruits are a box with preserved sepals, visually resembling the beak of a crane; it opens in an unusual way - from the bottom to the top.

Many years ago, the healing properties of geranium were discovered, its leaves helped to heal open wounds and abscesses due to the strongest anti-inflammatory and regenerating effect.

Geranium is a truly mystical plant, with which many secrets and myths are associated. By the way, one of them explains why this plant is popularly called "crane". Tradition says that once a young female crane was killed by hunters, and her lover could not survive such a loss. For three days he circled over the place of her death, and then, folding his wings, he threw himself down on the stones with all his might. A few days later, amazingly beautiful flowers appeared on this place - this was geranium.

Geraniums are also credited with magical properties. It is believed that she is able to fill the home with positive energy, warmth and love.

Such beautiful legends fully correspond to the unusual and very delicate appearance of this plant. Just look how attractive it is.

For what types of geraniums exist, see below.