Sphaeralcea leptophylla |
Sphaeralcea ambigua |
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scaly globemallow |
apricot mallow, desert globemallow, desert mallow |
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Habit | Plants perennial. | Plants perennial. | ||||||||
Stems | ascending, white to silvery, 1–4(–6) dm, silvery stellate-lepidote. |
erect, yellow-green or gray to white, 5–10 dm, yellow-green- or gray- to white-canescent. |
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Leaf | blades white to silvery, linear to triangular, mostly unlobed, proximalmost blades 3-parted, rarely with nonfiliform lobes, 1–3.5 cm, not rugose, base truncate to cuneate, margins entire, surfaces silvery stellate-lepidote. |
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Inflorescences | racemose, lax, open, 3–12-flowered, tip not leafy; involucellar bractlets silvery-lepidote. |
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Flowers | sepals 4.5–5.5(–7) mm; petals red-orange, 8–15 mm; anthers yellow. |
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Seeds | 1 per mericarp, brown, usually glabrous. |
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Schizocarps | flattened-spheric to conic; mericarps 7–9, 2.5–3.5 × 2–3 mm, thick-coriaceous, nonreticulate dehiscent part 20–40% of height, tip muticous-mucronulate, indehiscent part usually wider than dehiscent part, sides coarsely reticulate. |
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Mericarp | , brown, glabrous or pubescent. |
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2n | = 20. |
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Sphaeralcea leptophylla |
Sphaeralcea ambigua |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–summer. | |||||||||
Habitat | Dry rocky areas | |||||||||
Elevation | 1500–1800 m (4900–5900 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; NV; TX; UT; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
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AZ; CA; NV; UT; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (3 in the flora). Sphaeralcea ambigua var. versicolor (Kearney) Kearney is known from Baja California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 6, p. 366. | FNA vol. 6, p. 359. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Sphaeralcea | Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Sphaeralcea | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Malvastrum leptophyllum, Malveopsis leptophylla, S. janeae, S. leptophylla var. janeae | |||||||||
Name authority | (A. Gray) Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 40: 59. (1913) | A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 22: 292. (1887) | ||||||||
Web links |