Geranium sessiliflorumCav.

WFO wfo-0000701313 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Alejandro Bruno Miranda-Calle
fig. a Alejandro Bruno Miranda-Calle, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-02 / obs. 193966381
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Alejandro Bruno Miranda-Calle
fig. b Alejandro Bruno Miranda-Calle, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193995154
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. c Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195901320
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. d Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194791213
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. e Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192671658
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. f Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181573690
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Agustín Zarco
fig. g Agustín Zarco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59628604
Geranium sessiliflorum, photographed by Agustín Zarco
fig. h Agustín Zarco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59628006

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 8 botanical countries

Regions where Geranium sessiliflorum is native: Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Bolivia, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Peru Argentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestArgentina SouthBoliviaChile CentralChile NorthChile SouthPeru
Native distribution of Geranium sessiliflorum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Argentina South AGS
Bolivia BOL
Chile Central CLC
Chile North CLN
Chile South CLS
Peru PER

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 129 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -8.8 °C -3.5 °C 2.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 8.2 °C 12.6 °C 18.9 °C
Annual rainfall 393 mm 1,464 mm 2,841 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 22 mm 122 mm 333 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 129 research-grade observations of Geranium sessiliflorum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Geranium acaule Phil. ex R.Knuth
  • Geranium bangii Hieron.
  • Geranium brevipes L'Hér. ex DC.
  • Geranium caespitosum Walp.
  • Geranium malpasense R.Knuth
  • Geranium pallidifolium R.Knuth
  • Geranium pflanzii R.Knuth
  • Geranium razuhillcaense R.Knuth
  • Geranium santacruzense R.Knuth
  • Geranium sessiliflorum Cav.
  • Geranium sessiliflorum f. albiflorum Kuntze
  • Geranium sessiliflorum var. albatum J.F.Macbr.
  • Geranium sessiliflorum var. compactum R.Knuth
  • Geranium sessiliflorum var. lanatum R.Knuth
  • Geranium sessiliflorum var. microphyllum Kuntze
  • Geranium sessiliflorum var. typicum R.Knuth
  • Geranium staffordianum R.Knuth
  • Geranium tucumanum R.Knuth
  • Geranium weberbauerianum R.Knuth

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.