Common name: Black Eyed Geranium • Nepalese: रगतगेडी Ragatageri
Botanical name: Geranium ocellatum Family: Geraniaceae (Geranium family) Synonyms: Geranium bicolor, Geranium choorense, Geranium ocellatum var. himalaicum
Black Eyed Geranium is a diffuse slender annual herb, which is velvety or
hairy-glandular. It grows at lower altitudes in the Himalayas. Leaves are
nearly circular or kidney-shaped in outline, 0.8-5 cm broad, divided into
up to 7 lobes. Lobes are further divided. Upper leaves are smaller than the
lower ones. Pink cup-shaped flowers, 1.2-1.5 cm broad, have a purplish
black eye in the center. The species name ocellatum means, like a small
eye. Sepals are glandular-hairy. Petals are
inverted-egg shaped, twice as long as the sepals, pink with a dark base.
The stigma is prominently divided into five parts.
Flowering: March-April.
| Photographed in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. |
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