Pelargonium torulosum E.M.Marais

A much-branched decumbent shrublet, up to 160 mm tall when in flower, deciduous during summer. Stems moniliform, succulent, with sparse straight hairs and very short glandular hairs, green but becoming brown and glabrous after leaf abscission, thicker parts 7-12 mm in diameter. Leaves closely spaced, herbaceous, green, hirsute and with short glandular hairs interspersed; lamina ovate to broadly ovate, 15-30 x 12-30 mm, bipinnately incised; segments oblong or linear, ±2 mm wide, apices more or less acute with a single straight hair (±2 mm long), margins entire; petiole non-persistent, 20-35 mm long; stipules free, shed with petiole, subulate, herbaceous, straw-coloured, 1.5-3 mm long and 1 mm wide at the base. Inflorescence: a subterminal branched system of peduncles bearing 2-3 pseudo-umbels with bracts or small foliage leaves at the Point of branching; peduncles 30-50 mm long, reddish-green, densely covered with glandular hairs; pseudo-umbels 4-8-flowered; bracts triangular, hirsute, 2 mm long. Pedicel ±1 mm long. Hypanthium 45-55 mm long, light green, indumentum as on peduncle. Sepals 5, 7 mm x 1.5-3 mm, narrowly ovate, apices acuminate, tight green to reddish-brown at the base, posterior one erect, others diverging from their bases, abaxially glandular and hirsute, hairs distally appressed, adaxially villous at apex. Petals 5, nearly equal in size but slightly different in form, 16-17.5 x 4-6 mm, spathulate with apices rounded, cream to yellow; posterior two recurved through more than 90°, with feather-like wine-red markings at the narrowly cuneate base; anterior three diverging from their attenuate bases, with linear wine-red markings at the very base. Stamens 10, fertile stamens 4, staminodes 6, all basally fused into a short staminal column, unequal; staminal column white, free filaments pink; fertile stamens 11.5-12 mm long, protruding from the flower, anterior staminode 7 mm long; anthers dark wine-red, 1.5 mm long and opening with longitudinal slits, pollen orange. Gynoecium: ovary superior, oblong-conical, 5-lobed, densely sericeous, pale green, 5.5 mm long; style filiform, dark red, 7 mm long; stigma with 5 recurved branches, dark red. Fruit: a schizocarp with 5 mericarps, bases of mericarps 3-6 mm long, tails ±33-35 mm long.