Abstract

I hit a snag while composing the text for this year’s wildflower of the year brochure on Wild Geranium, Geranium maculatum. The problem concerned the proper descriptive term for its inflorescence, i.e., the pattern in which its flowers are grouped. In more than one source, I read that, for the family Geraniaceae, inflorescences are cymes (Figures 1 and 2), but those same sources indicated that inflorescences of Geranium maculatum are corymbs (Figure 4). That conflict caused me to scratch my head because cymes and corymbs are fundamentally different kinds of inflorescences.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2020

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2020 Virginia Native Plant Society. This article first appeared in Sempervirens: The Quarterly of the Virginia Native Plant Society (Spring 2020), 4-5.

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Citation Example for Article (Chicago):

Hayden, John W. "Wildflower of the Year—Cymes, not Corymbs!" Sempervirens: The Quarterly of the Virginia Native Plant Society (Spring, 2020): 4-5.

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