Narrative

European wild Geranium (Geranium macrorhizum) is native to southern Europe. This species is frequently domesticated. There are several named varieties.

The pink color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated.

This lfieform is found in Europe.

Geranium genus (geranium) is found worldwide in temperate regions. There are about 300 to 400 species of perennial herbs and small shrubs in this genus. Most species have palmately divided leaves. The flowers are in umbel-like heads or solitary. There are 42 species, no natural hybrids, and 17 subspecies now growing in greater North America.

Geranium Family (Geraniaceae) contains about 700-800 species distributed worldwide. These are herbs with flowers that have five sepals and five petals. There are 65 species in three genera now growing in greater North America.

Geranium Order (Geraniales) is a large order composed of many different families. Included here are the Geranium, Oxalis, and Citrus groups.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.