Wild Geranium, Spotted Geranium, Geranium maculatum L., Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

(Spotted Geranium, Crane's-bill) An erect perennial of the open woods, it reaches up to 2 feet in height. Leaves: The large palmately-divided basal leaves have 5 to 7 lobes and are irregularly cleft and have long stalks on which are white hairs. There is also one pair of smaller leaves on short stalks on the flowering stem, which grows directly from the root. Flowers: The flower color will vary from a rose-purple when growing in full shade to almost white (usually when exposed to much sun). Flowers are 5-part, 1 to 1 1/2" wide and appear on stalked loose clusters above the leaves. Petals have a deeper color veining. Pedicels (flower stalks) are hairy and each division of the cluster has small linear bracts. Flowers have ten stamens with light brown anthers, several styles, 5 petals and 5 sepals that are shorter than the petals. Fruit: An erect beak-like seed capsule, covered with hair, develops at maturity. The capsule has five cells, each containing one seed and when mature, the outer carpels of the capsule curl backward to expose the seeds. Found throughout the Woodland Garden, usually in large swaths. It grows from rhizomes. Mature rhizomes are 2 to 4 inches long with branching for new growth. See Eloise Butler's notes below.

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Wild Geranium	Geranium maculatum L.	Geranium (Geraniaceae)	Woodland	Spring to Early Summer
Other names and notes	(Spotted Geranium, Crane's-bill) An erect perennial of the open woods, it reaches up to 2 feet in height. Leaves: The large palmately-divided basal leaves have 5 to 7 lobes and are irregularly cleft and have long stalks on which are white hairs. There is also one pair of smaller leaves on short stalks on the flowering stem, which grows directly from the root. Flowers: The flower color will vary from a rose-purple when growing in full shade to almost white (usually when exposed to much sun). Flowers are 5-part, 1 to 1 1/2" wide and appear on stalked loose clusters above the leaves. Petals have a deeper color veining. Pedicels (flower stalks) are hairy and each division of the cluster has small linear bracts. Flowers have ten stamens with light brown anthers, several styles, 5 petals and 5 sepals that are shorter than the petals. Fruit: An erect beak-like seed capsule, covered with hair, develops at maturity. The capsule has five cells, each containing one seed and when mature, the outer carpels of the capsule curl backward to expose the seeds. Found throughout the Woodland Garden, usually in large swaths. It grows from rhizomes. Mature rhizomes are 2 to 4 inches long with branching for new growth. See Eloise Butler's notes below.