Pelargonium triste, is a geophyte with flowering stems of about 25 cm (9.8 in) high on average, that is assigned to the Stork's bill family.

The flowers are crowded in umbels, and mostly there are slight to intense maroon to black markings that may be small or cover the entire petal except for a narrow line along the margins.

It is known as the night-scented pelargonium in English, kaneeltjie, pypkaneel or rooiwortel in Afrikaans and wit n/eitjie in the Khoi language.

The stems are hard and woody at their base and succulent towards their tip, initially green but eventually brown, and rough due to the scars left by discarded stipules and petioles.

The base of the segments is wedge-shaped or narrow into a stalk while the tips are rounded or squared-off, the margins entire and rolled upwards.

The flowers are with 6 to 15 together in an umbel-like cluster on top of a sturdy unbranched peduncle of 5–25 cm (2.0–9.8 in) long and maximally 2.5 mm (0.098 in) in diameter.

The five sepals are 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long and 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) wide, narrowly oval in shape with pointy tips, the outside densely strigose and some glandular hairs, the inside hairless, the margins with a row of hairs (or ciliate), dull green to yellowish green in colour and sometimes with russet coloured and slightly transparent margins.

[citation needed] Like in all Geraniaceae, the fruit is reminiscent of the head and bill of a stork.

[3] The mericarps of Pelargonium are light and carry feather-like hairs to act like parachutes when dry and enable distribution by the wind.

[6] Since the plant was brought by a ship returning from Asia, it was erroneously thought to originate in India.

In 1789, Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle established the new genus Pelargonium,[3] that is amongst others characterised by zygomorph flowers, with 10 stamens, only 2-7 of which carry an anther and the posterior sepal is fused with the pedicel to form a nectar tube.

Also in 1824, Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle reduced the status of Pelargonium daucoides to P. flavum var.

[3] The name of the genus Pelargonium is derived from the Ancient Greek word πελαργός (pelargos), meaning stork, for the likeness of he fruit to the neck, head and bill of that bird.

The species name triste is derived from the Latin tristis, meaning dull, a reference to the colour of the petals.

It is most apparent in open areas, but as the fynbos develops, the plants get shaded by the surrounding shrubs and stop flowering.

The large underground tuber however enables the plants to survive for many years and reappear after a fire has destroyed the above ground vegetation.

[3] The deep hypantium and night scents are suggestive that the flowers are pollinated by night-active, long-tongued insects such as moths.

[10] John Tradescant the Younger, a well-known plant collector, took the night-scented pelargonium to England in 1632, making it one of the first species from the Cape that was cultivated in the United Kingdom.