Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Geraniales

Family: Geraniaceae -- Geranium

Common Name: sticky geranium

Species Code: GEVI2

Origin: Native to medium-dry to moist places of grasslands, open meadows, and open forest from British Columbia south to California and east to New Mexico, South Dakota, and Saskatchewan. Widespread with a broad ecological amplitude.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, 40-90 cm tall, ascending to erect, lower parts spreading short-hairy, long hairy and often glandular-hairy above.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: FACU+

Leaves: long petiolate; basal sharply toothed, densely glandular-hairy, palmately-lobed with 5-7 obovate-cuneate, sharply toothed sections, 5-12 cm broad; cauline leaves similar, opposite, reduced.

Mature height: 12-20 inches

Flowers: 5-merous; sepals 8-12 mm long, tips setose, elliptic; petals 14-20 mm long, rounded to emarginate, pinkish to purplish, occasionally white, pilose at the base; stylar column 2.5-5 cm long.

Flower color: purple, pink

Bloom: May, June, July

Bloom starts on: late May

Bloom ends on: early July

Fruit: capsule, tipped with slender persistent styles 3-4 cm long, recurved after seeds are shed, glandular hirsute, containing 1-2 seeds; seeds pitted, ovoid, slightly flattened, brown to blackish.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
54,809 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
52,000-72,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
55,238 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Deer, elk, bear and moose eat the plants (Craighead et al 1963). Valuable forage for Rocky Mountain elk in spring and summer (Kufeld 1973).
Used medicinally.
Taprooted.
n=13 (University of British Columbia 2003).
A study of insect pollinators of G. viscosissimum on Palouse Prairie remnants found the flowers attracted 46-49 different species. The majority were bees, but Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera were also observed. Bees of Andrena, Osmia, Tetralonia, and Bombus were believed to be the most effective pollinators (Finer 2003).
The sticky substance on the leaves and stems can trap insects and the plants are apparently capable of digesting and translocating the insect protein (Spomer 1999).
Flowers are perfect.
Polyploids exist.
Fruit is a capsule. The styles are persistent and recurve upward at maturity to explosively shed the seed.

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Precipitation: 10-19 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: scarification increases germination

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: high

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: July

Seed comments: indeterminate, shatters readily. Seed is expelled quickly at maturity

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: forb upland native

Propagation:
3 protocols in the Native Plant Network
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Glacier National Park, Montana
University of Kentucky

Other propagation information:
Germinates without pretreatment but cold moist stratification may improve germination (Link 1993).
26 weeks cold moist stratification at 2^oC, then grow at alternating day/night temperatures of 22/17^oC. Some germination will occur during stratification (McDonough 1969).
Seed dry stored for 18 months had 100% germ in petri dishes at 22-29^oC (Griswold 1936).
3 boreal forest species of Geranium in Sweden were found to geminate best after exposure to temps of 60-65^oC (Granstrom & Schimmel 1993).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Geranium viscosissimum should be a great garden subject. It grows quickly and flowers over an extended period as long as moisture is available. Flowers open in late May and will continue into July. Plants will go dormant during the heat of summer, but grow new leaves and sometimes flower during warm, moist autumns. Plants are large and robust. They compete well with other species. Seed is ejected forcefully, so it will move around. Sometimes susceptible to powdery mildew. Rabbits sometimes nip off the leaf stalks, but don’t seem to eat much. Common name is sticky geranium (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Finer, Matthew S. 2003. Effects of Geitonogamy, Habitat Fragmentation, and Population Size on Plant Reproductive Success: Ecological and Evolutionary Studies. PhD thesis, Washington State University (Biological Sciences).

Granstrom, A., and J. Schimmel. 1993. Heat Effects on Seeds and Rhizomes of a Selection of Boreal Forest Plants and Potential Reaction to Fire. Oecologia 94:307-313.

Griswold, Sylvia M. 1936. Effect of Alternate Moistening and Drying on Germination of Seeds of Western Range Plants. Botanical Gazette 98:243-269.

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Link, Ellen (ed.). 1993. Native Plant Propagation Techniques for National Parks Interim Guide. USDA, NRCS, Rose Lake Plant Materials Center. East Lansing, MI.

McDonough, Walter T. 1969. Effective Treatments for the Induction of Germination in Mountain Rangeland Species. Northwest Science 43:18-22.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Spomer, George G. 1999. Evidence of Protocarnivorous Capabilities in Geranium viscosissimum and Potentilla arguta and Other Sticky Plants. International Journal of Plant Science 160:98-101.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 1/1/06.

USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 13 August 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium