Species
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Pelargonium capitatum (L.) L'Hér.

Coast Storksbill, Common Storksbill, Rose Scented Geranium, Rose scented geranium (EN); Kopfige Pelargonie (DE); Malvarrosa comun (ES)

Climate known 56 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Pelargonium capitatum is one of several species known as rose geranium or rose-scented pelargonium in English. The popular names refer to the scent of the essential oils extracted from glandular tissue, not the flowers, which have hardly any scent to speak of. Some of the species are known as kusmalva in Afrikaans.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pelargonium capitatum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Pelargonium

Pelargonium is a genus of flowering plants commonly called geraniums, pelargoniums, or storksbills. It includes about 280 species of perennials, succulents, and shrubs. Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus originally included all the species of Pelargonium and Geranium under the latter name. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Pelargonium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Geraniaceae
Described by
(L.) L'Hér.
Native to
Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal
Wild records
1311 in range· 228 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Feb, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
657mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 69 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–48DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 657 mm a year, wettest August at 69 mm, driest February at 35 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 48 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Geraniospermum capitatum (L.) Kuntze; Geraniospermum clavatum (L'Hér. ex DC.) Kuntze; Geranium capitatum L.; Geranium rosa DC.; Hoarea capitata (L.) Sweet and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (492 mm of 657 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 7.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 657 mm a year, wettest August at 69 mm, driest February at 35 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

657 mm a year at the habitat, 492 mm of it April to November. Wettest month August at 69 mm, driest February at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 474 mm to 1291 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 48 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 5.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 5.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.0 °C to 13.4 °C), warmest day 23.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Feb; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 657 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 341 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°38.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–48RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 341 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 21–2624 / 21–2723 / 20–2521 / 19–2419 / 17–2217 / 16–2116 / 15–2017 / 15–2118 / 16–2119 / 17–2121 / 18–2322 / 20–25
Night °C17 / 16–2018 / 16–2017 / 15–1915 / 13–1813 / 11–1611 / 8–1411 / 7–1311 / 8–1412 / 9–1413 / 11–1615 / 13–1716 / 15–19
Rain mm39 / 17–10835 / 14–8548 / 22–9267 / 46–9954 / 38–15164 / 34–19465 / 39–20869 / 47–16661 / 33–11760 / 32–11752 / 24–11743 / 20–98
DLI48 / 40–5342 / 36–4835 / 31–3926 / 25–2819 / 18–2116 / 15–1818 / 17–2023 / 22–2431 / 29–3238 / 34–4245 / 39–5048 / 41–53
RH %62 / 58–6463 / 59–6563 / 59–6562 / 59–6461 / 58–6359 / 55–6159 / 55–6161 / 58–6261 / 60–6261 / 59–6361 / 58–6361 / 58–64

Each figure is the median across the 341 grid cells holding the 1304 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2481:4043 (-34.075, 22.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 341 distinct grid cells holding the 1304 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2481:4043 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.00_21.875, lapse-corrected -244 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 46 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal· introduced: Canary Is., Tasmania, California, Bermuda, Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.059, 18.499 · in the densest population, 997 records (76% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1311 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 228 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 368 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1311 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatumPelargonium capitatum

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Mihlali Madikane, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jared Zachary Herman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Kobus Meyer, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Pelargonium capitatum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Physical dormancy in Geraniaceae seeds
Anke Meisert (2002) · Seed Science Research
Properties and limits of some essential oils: chemical characterisation, antimicrobial activity, interaction with antibiotics and cytotoxicity
F. Scazzocchio, Stefanıa Garzoli, Cinzia Conti, Claudia Leone (2015) · Natural Product Research
Chemical Characterization (GC/MS and NMR Fingerprinting) and Bioactivities of South‐African Pelargonium capitatum (L.) L' Her . (Geraniaceae) Essential Oil
Alessandra Guerrini, Damiano Rossi, Guglielmo Paganetto, Massimiliano Tognolini (2011) · Chemistry & Biodiversity
Physiomorphological response of rose-scented geranium (Pelargonium spp.) to irrigation frequency
Bahlebi K. Eiasu, J. M. Steyn, Puffy Soundy (2011) · South African Journal of Botany
Thidiazuron-induced shoot organogenesis from mature leaf explants of scented Pelargonium capitatum cultivars
Muhammad Arshad, Jérôme Silvestre, Georges Merlina, Camille Dumat (2011) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Pelargonium 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.