Flora of North America species comparison

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Eremalche

desert mallow, mallow
Habit Herbs, annual, sometimes gynodioecious.
Stems

prostrate to erect, sparsely to densely hairy.
Leaves

stipules caducous, subulate;

blade reniform-round, unlobed or palmately 3-, 5-, [7-]cleft, base truncate to cordate, margins usually toothed, sometimes entire.
Inflorescences

axillary, solitary flowers in lower axils, congested and ± corymbose at branch tips;

involucellar bractlets persistent, 3, distinct.
Flowers

calyx not accrescent, not inflated, lobed to beyond middle, lobes not ribbed, acuminate;

corolla campanulate, white to rose, lavender, or mauve, drying purple or blue;

staminal column included;

ovary 9–36-carpellate;

ovules 1 per carpel;

styles 9–36-branched (branches equal in number to carpels);

stigmas terminal, capitate.
Fruits

schizocarps, oblique, not inflated, depressed-discoid, edge corrugate or reticulate, glabrous;

mericarps 9–36, drying black, 1-celled, without spur, ± spheric, unarmed, lateral walls ± disintegrated, indehiscent.
Seeds

ascending, 1 per mericarp, black, obovoid-reniform, glabrous.
x

= 10.

Eremalche
Distribution
from USDA
sw United States; nw Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 3 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades unlobed; petals magenta-spotted at base; mericarps 2.8–3.5 mm.
E. rotundifolia
1. Leaves lobed or parted; petals not spotted; mericarps 1.4–1.8 mm
→ 2
2. Flowers bisexual; petals 4–5.5 mm, ± equaling calyx; plants prostrate to decumbent.
E. exilis
2. Flowers bisexual or pistillate; petals 5.5–20(–25) mm, equaling or exceeding calyx; plants erect, main stem unbranched or with ascending branches from base.
E. parryi
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 246. Authors: David M. Bates, Malvastrum A. Gray subsect. Pedunculosa A. Gray in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1(1, 2): 308. 1897.
Parent taxa Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae
Subordinate taxa
E. exilis, E. parryi, E. rotundifolia
Name authority Greene: Leafl. Bot. Observ. Crit. 1: 208. (1906)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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