Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Herb guide to Pelargonium along with all the Pelargonium containing recipes presented on this site, with 3 recipes in total.

e This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Pelargonium as a major herb flavouring.

Pelargoniums,Pelargonium spp (also known as Scented Geraniums or Storksbills) are members of the Geraniaceae family of flowering plants. The family contains about 200 species, of perennials, succulents, and shrubs originally native to South Africa, though other species are native to Australia, the North of New Zealand, Madagascar, eastern Africa, Yemen, Asia Minor and the islands of St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha. However, most pelargoniums cultivated in Europe and North America derive from South Africa. The plants are drought and heat tolerant, but can only withstand minor frosts. Because of the flowers and their scented leaves, they are very popular garden plants.

The common name 'geranium' is very confusing, as this is the botanical name of a separate genus of plants, often called 'Cranesbills'.

The name Pelargonium was introduced by Johannes Burman in 1738, from the Greek πελαργός, pelargós, stork, because the seed head looks like a stork's beak.

Pelargonium leaves are usually alternate, and palmately lobed or pinnate, often on long stalks, and sometimes with light or dark patterns. The erect stems bear five-petaled flowers in umbel-like clusters called pseudoumbels. The shapes of the flowers have been bred to a variety ranging star-shaped to funnel-shaped, and colours include white, pink, red, orange-red, fuchsia to deep purple. The Pelargonium flower has a single symmetry plane (zygomorphic), which distinguishes it from the Geranium flower which has radial symmetry (actinomorphic).

Many cultivars have been produced with scented leaves. Culinarily, the most important of these include:

Almond — Pelargonium quercifolium

Apple — Pelargonium odoratissimum

Lemon — Pelargonium crispum

Nutmeg — Pelargonium fragrans (Pelargonium x fragrans)

Old Spice — Pelargonium fragrans 'Logees'

Peppermint — Pelargonium tomentosum

Rose — Pelargonium graveolens (Pelargonium roseum)

Rose — Pelargonium capitatum

Rose — Pelargonium radens

Lemon Scented — Pelargonium citronellum

Apricot — Pelargonium scabrum

Strawberry — Pelargonium scarboroviae (Pelargonium x scarboroviae)

'Ginger' — Pelargonium x torento (Pelargonium torento)

'Lemon Balm' — a hybrid: Pelargonium x melissinum (Pelargonium melissinum)

'Lime' — a hybrid: (Pelargonium x nervosum) (Pelargonium nervosum)

'Prince of Orange' — a hybrid: Pelargonium x citrosum

The image above shows rose-scented pelargoniums (top level). The bottom-left image is a nutmeg-scented pelargonium and the bottom-right image is a lemon-scented pealrgonium.

Pelargoniums are used as herbs, because of the scented leaves which can be used to flavour baked goods, jellies, candies, and teas. Flavoured syrups can also be made by making a simple syrup (sugar and water mixture) and infusing scented pelargonium leaves in this.

It is traditional to bake scented pelargonium leaves into the base of some cakes, so that when the cakes are served the leaves can be seen on top of the cake.