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Pelargonium carnosum (Fleshy Stalk Pelargonium) - An interesting shrubby plant that grows 1 to 2 feet tall and spreading slightly wider, with thick succulent gray stems that snake about both upwards and down and are swollen (knotted) at the internodes and bearing toward their tips soft feathery deeply pinnatifid green leaves on long petioles. In early summer, as the plant is going dormant, appear the 1/2-inch-wide white flowers with red exerted stigmas on branched upright peduncles that rise above the foliage.
Plant in a pot or in the ground in full to part sun in a well-drained soil with occasional irrigation. Has tolerated short duration temperatures of 25°F in our garden without damage but best in near frost-free locations. This plant is a winter grower and will go semi-dormant in summer, so careful water management is crucial during the dormancy - can be watered sparingly through summer in pots so long as soil drains very well. A very interesting and attractive succulent germanium.
The Pelargonium carnosum complex is spread over western South Africa and Namibia and this form, which hails northwestern South Africa, previously was called Pelargonium ferulaceum. It was combined into Pelargonium carnosum but it can still be found being grown under both names and some use Pelargonium carnosum subspecies ferulaceum. The older name "ferulaceum' comes from the Latin word 'ferula' meaning a "reed" or "stalk", likely in reference to the stalked flowers while the current epithet, "carnosum" is the Latin word for "fleshy' in reference to the thick succulent stems. The name for the genus comes from Johannes Burman (1707-1780, a Dutch physician and botanist who Linnaeus worked for in his youth. Burman first used the name to describe some South African Geraniums in 1738. The name was derived from the Greek word 'pelargós' meaning "stork" because the seed head looks like that of a stork's beak. Another very similar species is Pelargonium laxum, which is distinguished by reflexed posterior (back folding) petals, nodding buds and very long stamens. We received our stock plants of this interesting succulent from Succulent master and Aloe breeder John Bleck and have offered it since 2017.
The information about Pelargonium carnosum that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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