Pelargonium redactum Vorster

An erect to procumbent annual with a strongly developed taproot, exposed parts well branched from base, unarmed, 50-250 mm tall and spreading to a diameter of up to 800 mm. Stems smooth, herbaceous, covered with microscopic, short, erect hairs interspersed with shorter capitate glandular hairs, green but with a silvery sheen due to indumentum. Leaves deeply 2-3-pinnatifid with segments almost linear, somewhat succulent, indumentum adaxially as on stem but abaxially denser, dull green to yellowish-green with a silvery sheen due to indumentum; lamina cordiform in outline, base cordate, apex acute to obtuse in outline, apices of segments subacute to rounded, margins of segments entire, 10-50 mm long and wide; petiole 10-150 mm long, persistent; stipules persistent, triangular, 1.5-2.5 x 1.0-2.0 mm, membranous, indumentum as on stem but sparser. Inflorescence a series of compact pseudo-umbels of 2-3(-4) flowers each; peduncle borne in axils of foliar leaves, 8-20(-50) mm long, lengthening somewhat in fruiting stage. Flower conspicuously zygomorphic, about 5 mm across. Pedicel 1-3(-5) mm long, lengthening somewhat in fruiting stage. Hypanthium about 1 mm long. Sepals narrowly ovate with apices acute, indumentum as on stem, glaucous green and longitudinally striate, 5-6 x 1.5 mm. Petals 4, dark wine-red with bases, apices, and sometimes margins white, and very dark branched veins near bases; posterior two spathulate and conspicuously auricled, abruptly narrowed to claw which is involute to form a false tube, limb about 5x2 mm, claw about 2.5 x 0.5 mm, basally parallel to sepals but sharply reflected at 90° at junction between claw and limb, exceeding sepals by 2-3 mm; anterior two elliptical with a short basal claw, about 6 x 2.5 mm and almost equalling sepals, very slightly recurved. Fertile stamens 2-3, about equal in length; pollen dark orange. Ovary narrowly ovoid, about 6 x 2.5 mm, densely covered with apically directed hairs, pale green (with a silvery sheen due to indumentum); style about 1.5 mm long, tinted wine-red; stigma with 5 spreading-erect branches, tinted wine-red; mericarp bases 5-6 x about 1 mm, tails 30-35 mm long, plumose. Flowering specimens have been collected from June-November with a peak in August and September, and fruiting specimens between May and October again with a peak in August and September.