Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: shelagh on September 22, 2013, 03:41:05 PM

Title: Unknown silver plant
Post by: shelagh on September 22, 2013, 03:41:05 PM: Can anyone identify this for me please. We liked it so much we were given cuttings but the gardener couldn't find a label.
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: Maggi Young on September 22, 2013, 04:56:42 PM: What a beauty.
It looks a little like Geranium harveyi - a smart little South African - but I'm not at all sure.

Will try to find a photo of Geranium harveyi to compare it with.....

edit : try this page http://www.diggingdog.com/pages2/plantpages.php/p-1265 (http://www.diggingdog.com/pages2/plantpages.php/p-1265)
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: shelagh on September 22, 2013, 07:10:46 PM: Looks pretty good Maggi.
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: Maggi Young on September 22, 2013, 07:36:39 PM: It's close, Shelagh - but I'm not convinced - yours is much more silvery and I think a more finely defined shape :-\
We need a South African/ geranium expert........
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: bob worsley on September 22, 2013, 10:59:43 PM: Potentilla calabra is our best guess. Yellow flowers in June/July?
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: fermi de Sousa on September 23, 2013, 12:05:15 AM: Quote from: Maggi Young on September 22, 2013, 07:36:39 PM
It's close, Shelagh - but I'm not convinced - yours is much more silvery and I think a more finely defined shape :-\
We need a South African/ geranium expert........
Not an expert ("x" being an unknown quantity and "spurt" being a drip under pressure!) but I'd say it's too disected to be G. harveyi; Bob's suggestion sounds good.
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: Lesley Cox on September 23, 2013, 06:12:29 AM: Yes, too spiky and silver to be G. harveyi, although it's a couple of years since I saw mine so maybe don't remember accurately. It died in frost in a hardish winter. Others in other gardens came through OK.
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: Maggi Young on September 23, 2013, 10:39:39 AM: Quote from: bob worsley on September 22, 2013, 10:59:43 PM
Potentilla calabra is our best guess. Yellow flowers in June/July?

Aha! Southern Italy rather than S.A.?!! Sounds good, Bob.

For this silvery little potentilla the indersides of the leaves should be really furry, is that right?
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: Brian Ellis on September 23, 2013, 01:33:11 PM: There's a good picture of the foliage of Geranium harveyi here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16155010@N04/9593225093/# (http://www.flickr.com/photos/16155010@N04/9593225093/#)

so I should say it is more likely to be the potentilla, funnily enough we were given a bit of what I thought was Geranium harveyi this summer, it hasn't flowered but is a dead ringer for the foliage above, the leaf is max just under 1 inch.
Title: Re: Unknown silver plant
Post by: shelagh on September 23, 2013, 04:26:28 PM: OK so I was a bit previous, I'll go and write another label. ::) The gardener who gave us the cuttings has looked at the forum and she says go with Potentilla calabra.

Thanks to you all.