Plants annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, aromatic, sometimes with underground tubers. Leaves opposite or alternate, lobed, dissected, or compound, rarely entire. Inflorescences usually umbellate, rarely solitary. Flowers bilaterally symmetric. Sepals imbricate, the uppermost produced at the base into a spur which is adnate to the pedicel. Petals 5 or fewer, usually unequal. Stamens 10, united at the base, only 2-7 anther-bearing. Styles short of long, elongating in fruit; stigmas usually filiform. Mericarps with a beak that is spirally twisted at maturity.
Pelargonium is a genus of about 300 species most of which are tropical or subtropical. It is particularly abundant in South Africa.