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.
Please note that downloads of the article are for private/personal use only.
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.
Recommended Citation
Hayden, John W. "Wildflower of the Year—Cymes, not Corymbs!" Sempervirens: The Quarterly of the Virginia Native Plant Society (Spring, 2020): 4-5.