Before Willdenow. Pelargonium hispidum, Hispid or Hairy Pelargonium, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Our Hairy Pelargonium was first scientifically described (1800) as a Pelargonium by Carl Ludwig von Willdenow (1765-1812), famous among other things for his revision of Carolus Linnaeus's great Species Plantarum. Henceforth it goes in full by 'Pelargonium hispidum Willd.', and that's how signs in botanical gardens - also here in Amsterdam - usually label it.
But Willdenow wasn't the first to describe it. If you search out his references you'll be taken to Spaniard Antonio José Cavanilles (1745-1804), one of Europe's great taxonomists. Cavanilles gives a full description (1787) in his discussion of what we today know as Pelargoniums but he back then as Geraniums (the distinction between the two monikers came into use between 1774 and 1789 through the efforts of Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800)).
Botany is an international sport, of course. I've already mentioned a German, a Swede and a Spaniard. Let's continue.
In his description Cavanilles writes that he has received his information from French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) who culled it from plants given him by his countryman Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814). Sonnerat had collected plants at the Cape of Good Hope in January 1773 with Carl Peter Thunberg, a frequent denizen of these pages, a Swedish student of great Carolus Linnaeus, who had not yet separated Pelargoniums from Geraniums.
Before Willdenow. Pelargonium hispidum, Hispid or Hairy Pelargonium, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Our Hairy Pelargonium was first scientifically described (1800) as a Pelargonium by Carl Ludwig von Willdenow (1765-1812), famous among other things for his revision of Carolus Linnaeus's great Species Plantarum. Henceforth it goes in full by 'Pelargonium hispidum Willd.', and that's how signs in botanical gardens - also here in Amsterdam - usually label it.
But Willdenow wasn't the first to describe it. If you search out his references you'll be taken to Spaniard Antonio José Cavanilles (1745-1804), one of Europe's great taxonomists. Cavanilles gives a full description (1787) in his discussion of what we today know as Pelargoniums but he back then as Geraniums (the distinction between the two monikers came into use between 1774 and 1789 through the efforts of Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800)).
Botany is an international sport, of course. I've already mentioned a German, a Swede and a Spaniard. Let's continue.
In his description Cavanilles writes that he has received his information from French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) who culled it from plants given him by his countryman Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814). Sonnerat had collected plants at the Cape of Good Hope in January 1773 with Carl Peter Thunberg, a frequent denizen of these pages, a Swedish student of great Carolus Linnaeus, who had not yet separated Pelargoniums from Geraniums.