Sidalcea elegans |
Sidalcea hartwegii |
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Del Norte checkerbloom, dwarf checkerbloom |
Hartweg's checkerbloom, valley checkerbloom |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 0.2–0.6(–0.8) m, sometimes ± glaucous, with woody taproot or caudex and rhizomes, freely rooting, 20–30 cm × 2–4 mm, often mat-forming, forming clones often 1–8 m2. | Herbs, annual, 0.1–0.4(–0.6) m, not glaucous, with taproot. |
Stems | scattered, erect to ascending, base decumbent to erect, usually rooting freely, solid, proximally hairy or glabrate, hairs soft, simple and stellate, distally brittle, easily broken, glabrous-glaucous. |
single, erect, unbranched or distally branched, often zigzag, solid, proximally usually glabrous or sparsely stellate-puberulent. |
Leaves | mostly basal or cauline 3 or 4 on proximal 1/3 of stem, much reduced; stipules wide-lanceolate to ovate, 3–4 × 1–1.5 mm; petioles of proximal leaves 6–12 cm, 2–4 times as long as blades in basal leaves, those of cauline leaves greatly reduced to 1/2 times or as long as blades; blade rounded to reniform, palmately (3–)5–7-lobed, usually (1–)2–5(–10) × (1–)2–5(–10) cm, apex rounded, surfaces: abaxial harshly stellate-hairy, adaxial usually simple-haired, basal blades shallowly incised, lobes with 3 deep crenations; cauline blades usually deeply 3–5(–7)-lobed nearly to base, lobe margins dentate or entire. |
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. |
Inflorescences | ascending, open, calyces not conspicuously overlapping except sometimes in bud, unbranched or few-branched, loosely (3–)5–10(–20)-flowered, not greatly elongated, 1-sided, 10–20 cm; bracts narrowly elliptic, shallowly 2-fid, proximal bracts divided to base and often with leaf remnant between, 3–4 mm, usually shorter than to equaling pedicels. |
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Pedicels | 3–4(–10) mm; involucellar bractlets absent. |
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Flowers | bisexual or unisexual and pistillate, plants gynodioecious; calyx 7–10 mm, slightly enlarged in fruit, uniformly, coarsely stellate-puberulent (some rays sometimes longer than others); petals dark pink, pale-veined at least when dry, pistillate 10–15(–20) mm, bisexual 20–25(–33) mm; staminal column 4–5 mm, sparsely hairy; anthers white to pale pink; 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. |
Seeds | 2 mm. |
1.5–2 mm. |
Schizocarps | 6–7 mm diam.; mericarps 6 or 7(or 8), 3–3.5 mm, back not ribbed, roughened, sides and back strongly reticulate-veined-rugose and pitted (honeycomblike), top minutely glandular-puberulent, mucro 0.8–1 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. |
2n | = 40, 60. |
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Sidalcea elegans |
Sidalcea hartwegii |
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Phenology | Flowering (May–)Jun–Jul(–Sep). | Flowering (Mar–)Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Open, dry woodlands, usually on serpentine | Dry to moist, grassy hillsides, foothill woodlands, vernal pools, often on serpentine |
Elevation | 100–200(–900) m (300–700(–3000) ft) | 30–800(–1000) m (100–2600(–3300) ft) |
Distribution |
CA; OR |
CA
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Discussion | Sidalcea elegans has been included within S. malviflora; it is easily distinguished by its relatively long, slender, shallow rhizomes; open, one-sided inflorescences; and thin, brittle stems. It resembles S. glaucescens in its leaves and inflorescence and is easily distinguished by its rhizomes and soft, simple hairs at the stem base. It has been confused with S. asprella, from which it is distinguished by its simple, flexible hairs at the stem base and by its more developed and elongated rhizomes and variable leaves. Sidalcea elegans occurs in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. (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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 6, p. 331. | FNA vol. 6, p. 333. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. malviflora subsp. elegans | S. hartwegii var. tenella, S. tenella |
Name authority | Greene: Cybele Columb. 1: 35. (1914) | A. Gray: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 20. (1849) |
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