Description:

• Erect, rhizomatous, perennial herbs; roots sometimes pleasantly aromatic
• Leaves radical, imparipinnate with terminal segments usually largest; cauline leaves few, often trifoliolate or bract-like; stipules adnate to petiole
• Inflorescence a lax, terminal, 2-12-flowered cyme
• Flowers bisexual, erect or nodding, honeyed
• Calyx: tube saucer-shaped, persistent, with 5 bracteoles above its base; lobes 5, imbricate or valvate in bud
• Petals 5, circular or obovate, longer than calyx, bright yellow
• Stamens many, perigynous, inserted with petals; anthers glabrous
• Disc lining receptacle smooth or grooved
• Gynoecium of many free carpels on a columnar receptacle; ovules solitary in each carpel, pendulous; style filiform, straight or bent, elongating at maturity; stigma minute, punctiform
• Fruit a cluster of 50-250 achenes borne on a cylindrical, dry receptacle, tipped with hardened, awn-like, hooked or curled persistent styles
• Seeds rounded; testa thin
• x = 7 (high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Geum L.
  • Linnaeus: 500 (1753)
  • Linnaeus: (1754)
  • Jussieu: 338 (1789)
  • Candolle: 550 (1825)
  • Endlicher: 1246 (1840)
  • Harvey: 289 (1862)
  • Hooker: 619 (1865)
  • Focke: 36 (1894)
  • Focke: 539 (1906)
  • Romoleroux: 52 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species ± 40, mainly temperate and cold areas of the northern hemisphere, with a few species in the mountains of South America
• Southern Africa: Species 1: Geum capense Thunb., in the eastern regions, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape