pelargonium
Mar. 21st, 2023 07:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordpelargonium (pel-ar-GOH-nee-uhm, pel-er-GOH-nee-uhm) - n., any of various African flowering plants of the genus Pelargonium, commonly called geraniums.
This gets confusing, so hang on. There is also a genus Geranium, but the domesticated ornamentals are all in Pelargonium (of which there are around 280 species). (Formerly, they were all in Geranium but botanists rethought this.) To add to the confusion, Pelargoniums are also called storksbills, because the seed head looks like a stork's beak, while Geraniums are also called cranebills, similar reason. (Can you tell a stork's bill from a crane's? I can't.) Pelargonium itself is from Ancient Greek pelargós, stork, while gernanium is from Ancient Greek géranos, crane.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
This gets confusing, so hang on. There is also a genus Geranium, but the domesticated ornamentals are all in Pelargonium (of which there are around 280 species). (Formerly, they were all in Geranium but botanists rethought this.) To add to the confusion, Pelargoniums are also called storksbills, because the seed head looks like a stork's beak, while Geraniums are also called cranebills, similar reason. (Can you tell a stork's bill from a crane's? I can't.) Pelargonium itself is from Ancient Greek pelargós, stork, while gernanium is from Ancient Greek géranos, crane.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
