Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Malvella leprosa

alkali sida, alkali-mallow, dollar-weed, oreja de ratón, scurfy sida, white-weed
Stems

prostrate, indument mixture of stellate and appressed, sublepidote hairs.
Leaves

petiole 1/2–1 times as long as blade;

blade ± reniform, 1–3.5 cm, wider than long, base obliquely truncate, margins serrate, apex obtuse or subacute, surfaces densely hairy, hairs appressed, sublepidote and stellate.
Pedicels

long, subequal to subtending petiole;

involucellar bractlets 3, inconspicuous, filiform, or 0.
Flowers

calyx 8–10 mm, with mixture of stellate and appressed sublepidote hairs, lobes ovate, bases not plicate-overlapping, apex acuminate;

petals pale yellow, sometimes with rose flush on fading, asymmetric, 12–15 mm;

stamens pallid, glabrous, staminal column antheriferous at apex;

style 7–10-branched, pallid, glabrous.
Schizocarps

7 mm diam. 2n = 22, 32.

Malvella leprosa
Phenology Flowering year-round in warmer areas.
Habitat Heavy, saline soil
Elevation 800–1500 m (2600–4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; KS; NM; NV; OK; OR; TX; UT; WA; Mexico (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora); South America (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Malvella leprosa is possibly introduced in Colorado. The species is considered to be a noxious weed in Arizona and California and increasing as saline soils increase.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 302.
Parent taxa Malvaceae > subfam. Malvoideae > Malvella
Sibling taxa
M. lepidota, M. sagittifolia
Synonyms Malva leprosa, Disella hederacea, M. hederacea, M. sulphurea, Malvastrum sulphureum, Sida hederacea, S. leprosa, S. sulphurea
Name authority (Ortega) Krapovickas: Bonplandia (Corrientes) 3: 59. (1970)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers