Pelargonium zonale (L.) L'Hér.
Horse-shoe Pelargonium, Horseshoe Geranium, Horseshoe Geranium (EN); Zonierte Pelargonie (DE); Geranio rosado (ES), Horseshoe Pelargonium
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 zonale is a species of Pelargonium native to southern Africa in the western regions of the Cape Provinces, in the geranium family. It is one of the parents of the widely cultivated plant Pelargonium × hortorum, often called "geranium", "horseshoe geranium", "zonal geranium" or "zonal pelargonium".
Text from Wikipedia, “Pelargonium zonale”, 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.
At a glance
Also known as Campylia variegata (L.fil.) Sweet; Ciconium clarum Hoffmanns.; Ciconium cocciniflorum Hoffmanns.; Ciconium crenatum (Link) Hoffmanns.; Ciconium densiflorum Eckl. & Zeyh. and 45 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February and April to October 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 (438 mm of 574 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and August. Mean temperature moves 9.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: February and April to October.
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 574 mm a year, wettest October at 63 mm, driest June at 31 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
574 mm a year at the habitat, 438 mm of it October to April and August. Wettest month October at 63 mm, driest June at 31 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 378 mm to 932 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: 17 to 48 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
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 0.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.9 °C, the absolute minimum -1.9 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.5 °C to 11.5 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.9 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 61% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 26 / 23–29 | 26 / 23–29 | 24 / 22–27 | 22 / 20–24 | 20 / 18–22 | 17 / 14–19 | 17 / 14–19 | 18 / 16–20 | 19 / 18–22 | 21 / 19–23 | 23 / 20–25 | 24 / 22–27 |
| Night °C | 15 / 12–18 | 16 / 13–18 | 14 / 12–17 | 12 / 9–16 | 9 / 6–14 | 6 / 3–12 | 6 / 3–12 | 7 / 4–12 | 8 / 5–13 | 10 / 7–14 | 12 / 9–15 | 14 / 11–17 |
| Rain mm | 51 / 27–86 | 47 / 24–80 | 61 / 37–90 | 53 / 39–80 | 36 / 23–68 | 31 / 20–62 | 32 / 19–61 | 45 / 26–86 | 37 / 21–65 | 63 / 36–97 | 63 / 34–97 | 55 / 32–89 |
| DLI | 47 / 41–51 | 42 / 37–45 | 34 / 32–37 | 26 / 25–28 | 20 / 19–23 | 17 / 16–20 | 19 / 17–21 | 24 / 22–26 | 31 / 30–33 | 38 / 35–40 | 45 / 40–47 | 48 / 42–50 |
| RH % | 60 / 55–64 | 61 / 56–64 | 60 / 56–64 | 58 / 55–63 | 55 / 52–58 | 54 / 51–56 | 53 / 50–56 | 55 / 52–59 | 57 / 53–61 | 59 / 56–62 | 60 / 55–63 | 60 / 55–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 260 grid cells holding the 591 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 2453:4141 (-32.675, 27.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.3 °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 260 distinct grid cells holding the 591 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2453:4141 (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 -32.50_26.875, lapse-corrected -199 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 849 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: Peter Warren, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (6); Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).
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 zonale, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Adromischus inamoenus Crassulaceae
Crassula mollis Crassulaceae
Crassula biplanata Silver Stonecrop
Cyrtanthus inaequalis Amaryllidaceae
Haworthiopsis scabra Asphodelaceae
Crassula nudicaulis Karoo StonecropOther Pelargonium 5 in the reference
Pelargonium capitatum Coast Storksbill
Pelargonium cucullatum Hooded Leaf Pelargonium
Pelargonium graveolens Rose-scent Storksbill
Pelargonium inquinans Scarlet Geranium
Pelargonium peltatum Ivyleaf Geranium 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 16 wild photographs already from the GBIF downloadinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 75 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








