Sidalcea asprella |
Sidalcea hartwegii |
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dwarf checkerbloom, harsh checker mallow, harsh checkerbloom |
Hartweg's checkerbloom, valley checkerbloom |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.1–1(–1.2) m, infrequently ± glaucous, with caudex or not, usually with freely-rooting fibrous rootstocks or rhizomes (5–)10–30 cm × 2–4 mm, matted or not. | Herbs, annual, 0.1–0.4(–0.6) m, not glaucous, with taproot. | ||||
Stems | usually single, erect and sometimes supported by adjacent plants (sprawling), base prostrate or decumbent-ascending to erect, often rooting, solid, not brittle, sometimes ± glaucous distally, proximally stellate-hairy, glabrate, hairs minute or larger and coarse (never simple only), usually 4-rayed, 0.5–1 mm. |
single, erect, unbranched or distally branched, often zigzag, solid, proximally usually glabrous or sparsely stellate-puberulent. |
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Leaves | basal and/or cauline, similar in size and shape; stipules linear to lanceolate, 2–3 × 1.1 mm; petiole (1–)5–10(–15) cm, longest on proximal leaves, 1–4 times longer on proximal leaves to 1/2 times to as long as blade on distal leaves; blade usually shallowly to deeply palmately 3–7-lobed usually halfway to base, proximal and distal cauline blades rounded to reniform, 2–3 × 2–5 cm, usually wider than long, base cordate to truncate, margins crenate, apex blunt or rounded, lobes narrowest at base, margins usually apically coarsely toothed, rarely entire, surfaces stellate-puberulent. |
cauline; stipules deciduous or inconspicuous, sometimes purplish, subulate, 1–1.5(–3) × 0.5–1 mm; petiole 0.5–1.5(–3) cm, usually 1/2 times involucellar bractlets absent. |
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Inflorescences | ascending or erect, often spiciform, open, calyces not overlapping in flower or fruit, unbranched or branched, 2–15(–30)-flowered, elongate in both flower and fruit, usually 1-sided, 6–11(–30) cm; bracts leaflike to linear, usually 2-fid, (2–)3–5(–15) mm. |
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Pedicels | 2–5(–10) mm; involucellar bractlets absent. |
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Flowers | bisexual or unisexual and pistillate, plants gynodioecious; calyx 5–12 mm, uniformly densely stellate-puberulent; petals pink to pale purple, pale-veined, (5–)10–28 mm, pistillate flowers darker, 5–15 mm; staminal column 4–5 mm, stellate-puberulent; anthers white; stigmas (6 or)7 or 8. |
bisexual or unisexual and pistillate, plants gynodioecious; calyx 8–10(–12) mm, not much enlarging in fruit, stellate-canescent, sparsely ciliate; petals pink to rose-purple or white, pale-veined, often whitened at base, 18–20(–25) mm; stamens: outer filaments incompletely connate, distally distinct, anthers not attached to connate portion of filaments; staminal column 6–7 mm, hairy; anthers white, stalked, aborted in pistillate flowers; stigmas 6 or 7. |
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Seeds | 1.5–2.8 mm. |
1.5–2 mm. |
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Schizocarps | 6–8 mm diam.; mericarps (6 or)7 or 8, 3–4 mm, usually glandular-puberulent to stellate-puberulent, sometimes glabrous, roughened, strongly reticulate-veined, sides and back pitted, mucro 0.5–1 mm. |
5–7 mm diam.; mericarps 6 or 7, 2.5–4 mm, sides smooth, margins rugose, back reticulate-veined, deeply pitted especially on top, glabrous or glandular-puberulent, mucro 0.5–0.8(–1) mm. |
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Sidalcea asprella |
Sidalcea hartwegii |
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Phenology | Flowering (Mar–)Apr–Jun. | |||||
Habitat | Dry to moist, grassy hillsides, foothill woodlands, vernal pools, often on serpentine | |||||
Elevation | 30–800(–1000) m [100–2600(–3300) ft] | |||||
Distribution |
CA; OR
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CA
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). Sidalcea asprella is variable and occurs from the central Sierra Nevada to southwestern Oregon. Typical plants in the central Sierra Nevada have weak, elongated stems that are often supported by neighboring vegetation; they lack simple recurved hairs at the stem base and may have either elongated rhizomes or a caudex. It has been confused with S. celata, S. elegans, S. gigantea, and S. glaucescens; formerly it was included within S. malviflora; molecular study has shown that it is different from S. malviflora. It belongs to a group including S. celata, S. elegans, S. gigantea, and S. hirtipes (K. Andreasen and B. G. Baldwin 2003). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Sidalcea hartwegii is widespread in California from Tulare to Shasta counties, a range similar to those of the other vernal-pool annuals. It is most easily recognized by its stamen column, on which the anthers are borne on free portions of filaments, unlike in the other annual species and more typical of the perennial species. This helps to support the suggestion that the annual species were separately derived and not part of a single lineage. Sidalcea hartwegii often grows with S. calycosa, from which it can be distinguished also by its rugose rather than deeply longitudinally furrowed dorsal mericarp surfaces. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 6, p. 325. | FNA vol. 6, p. 333. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
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Synonyms | S. malviflora subsp. asprella | S. hartwegii var. tenella, S. tenella | ||||
Name authority | Greene: Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. 1: 78. (1885) | A. Gray: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 20. (1849) | ||||
Web links |