Pelargoniums cape town

Pelargonium sidoides, also known as Cape Pelargonium, is a plant of the Pelargonium genus in the Geraniaceae family. The Cape Pelargonium is a shrub up to 80 cm tall with heart-shaped, hairy leaves and massive roots up to 15 cm long. The dried, underground parts (Pelargonium root - Pelargonii radix) are used phytotherapeutically.

Pelargonium species grow as annual or perennial plants and are rarely seen as semi-shrubs or shrubs.
The upper leaves are alternate, the lower ones are arranged in opposite directions. The mostly hairy leaves of the plant are single with stipules.

The flowers are usually clustered together in corymbed inflorescences, whose individual flowers do not have a discus, unlike other species of the genus Pelargonium. At maturity, only the inner parts of the petals remain as a central column. The outer parts of the flower stand out. The fruit is a cleaved fruit which jumps up into five solitary partial fruits.

Pelargonium sidoides, together with Pelargonium reniforme, is the parent plant of Pelargonii sidoidis radix, the crushed and dried, subterranean organs of the plant.

1. https://www.heilpflanzen.online/pflanzenportraits/kapland-pelargonie/
2. Blaschek W (2015) Wichtl tea drugs and phytopharmaceuticals. A handbook for practice. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Munich. S 484-487