Sticky Purple Geranium Seeds (Geranium viscosissimum)

Don’t let the common name deceive you, this isn’t a sticky plant in the sense that it is very wet or tacky, but rather it is a plant covered in fine soft glandular hairs that capture small insects, dissolving them and absorbing them as a minor supplemental source of nutrients. This allows the plant to survive in low fertility conditions – typically mountain and canyon landscapes across the Inland West from British Columbia and Saskatchewan southward throughout the interior Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, Western Rockies, into the Southwest. It’s a tenaciously beautiful plant in rocky, often dry landscapes (although it certainly enjoys water and partial shade where it can get it).

With its velcro-like foliage it tends to be left alone by foliage feeding insects. The intense pink-purple flowers however are a different story – much visited by various native bees, syrphid flies, and butterflies over the very long (spring through late summer) bloom period. Sticky Geranium has a pleasing clumping form that lends itself very well to use as a native ornamental bedding plant with attractive palmate leaves that turn a deep magenta color in the fall. It contrasts nicely with steppe and montane grasses such as Idaho Fescue and Bluebunch Wheatgrass in restoration settings, and pairs well with wildflowers such as Roundleaf Alumroot and Silky Lupine in pollinator-focused projects.

100+ seeds (1.0 grams)