page_title: Pelargonium
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Pelargonium / Etymology
context_page_description: Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants which includes about 280 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs, commonly known as geraniums, pelargoniums, or storksbills. Geranium is also the botanical name and common name of a separate genus of related plants, also known as cranesbills. Both genera belong to the family Geraniaceae. Carl Linnaeus originally included all the species in one genus, Geranium, and they were later separated into two genera by Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle in 1789.
  Pelargonium species are evergreen perennials indigenous to temperate and tropical regions of the world, with many species in southern Africa. They are drought and heat tolerant, but can tolerate only minor frosts. Some species are extremely popular garden plants, grown as houseplants and bedding plants in temperate regions. They have a long flowering period, with flowers mostly in purple, red and orange, or white.
context_section_description: The name Pelargonium is derived from the Greek πελαργός, pelargós (stork), because the seed head looks like a stork's beak. Dillenius originally suggested the name 'stork', because Geranium was named after a crane — "a πελαργός, ciconia, sicuti vocamus Gerania, γερανός, grus" (as pelargos, stork, as we call the Gerania, geranos, crane). Despite the Latin, this should not be confused with the modern-day genus Ciconia, of birds in the stork family.
caption: One of hundreds of garden and houseplant cultivars
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