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meadow checker-mallow, meadow sidalcea

Habit Herbaceous perennial from a thick taproot and short rhizome, the stems 0.5-2 m. tall, usually with short, stiff hairs
Leaves

Leaves alternate, palmately deeply 7- to 9-lobed, 5-15 cm. broad, the lobes again lobed and toothed.

Flowers

Inflorescence an open, elongate raceme, the pedicels 3-6 mm. long;

calyx 5-lobed, stellate or stellate and bristly;

petals 5, nearly white to pinkish-orchid, 12-25 mm. long, clawed, with marginal hairs on the claws, shallowly notched;

stamens 40-70, freed from the staminal tube in 2-3 series, the stamens united in groups;

ovary superior, the carpels 5-10 in a ring around a central axis;

styles equal to the number of carpels, elongate, stigmatic full length.

Fruits

Capsule 3.5 mm. long.

Sidalcea neomexicana

Sidalcea campestris

Flowering time May-July
Habitat Dry fields and roadsides.
Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring west of the Cascades crest in Washington, where escaped from cultivation; endemic to the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Oregon
Conservation status Review Group 1 in Washington (WANHP)
Sibling taxa
S. campestris, S. hendersonii, S. hirtipes, S. nelsoniana, S. oregana, S. virgata
S. hendersonii, S. hirtipes, S. nelsoniana, S. oregana, S. virgata
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