pelargonium
Jun. 16th, 2017 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordpelargonium (pel-ahr-GOH-nee-uhm) - n., any of several southern African flowering plants (genus Pelargonium), the cultivated species of which are the geraniums.
Not to be confused with the plants of the genus Geranium, which were once considered part of the same genus. The pelargoniums are also called stork's-bills (after the shape of the seed-pod) while the Geraniums are also called crane's-bills -- a distinction that helps me not, as I have trouble telling cranes from storks just by the bill. The name was coined in New Latin from Greek roots Greek pelargós, stork + (gerá)nion, geranium, or stork's-geranium, to add to the confusion.
Pretty flowers, okay? -- and leave it at that.
---L.
Not to be confused with the plants of the genus Geranium, which were once considered part of the same genus. The pelargoniums are also called stork's-bills (after the shape of the seed-pod) while the Geraniums are also called crane's-bills -- a distinction that helps me not, as I have trouble telling cranes from storks just by the bill. The name was coined in New Latin from Greek roots Greek pelargós, stork + (gerá)nion, geranium, or stork's-geranium, to add to the confusion.
Pretty flowers, okay? -- and leave it at that.
---L.
