Sidalcea hartwegii |
Sidalcea sparsifolia |
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Hartweg's checkerbloom, valley checkerbloom |
dwarf checkerbloom, southern checkerbloom |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, 0.1–0.4(–0.6) m, not glaucous, with taproot. | Herbs, perennial, 0.2–0.8 m, not glaucous, with thick, fibrous caudex or taproot and short rootstocks, rhizomes developed or not, 3–5 mm diam. |
Stems | single, erect, unbranched or distally branched, often zigzag, solid, proximally usually glabrous or sparsely stellate-puberulent. |
1–20, clustered, erect to ascending or decumbent, usually not rooting, solid, proximally hairy, hairs simple, stellate, or mixed, 0.5–1.5 mm, distally usually stellate-hairy or glabrous. |
Leaves | 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. |
mostly basal, cauline to 5, (plant sometimes scapose); stipules linear to lanceolate, 2–8 × 1–1.5 mm; petioles of basal leaves 5–10(–25) cm, often 5 times blade length, distally reduced to 1/2 times blade length; blade orbiculate to reniform, 2–6(–8) × 2–6(–8) cm, base cordate, apex rounded, surfaces stellate-hairy abaxially, moderately minutely stellate-hairy to appressed-hairy adaxially, basal leaves usually shallowly 7-lobed, sometimes unlobed and margins crenate, cauline smaller, palmately 3–5-lobed ± to base, lobe margins entire or incised. |
Inflorescences | usually ascending, ± open, calyces not conspicuously overlapping except sometimes in bud, branched or unbranched, 10+-flowered, most flowers spaced 1+ cm apart, elongated, extending well above leaves, narrow, often 1-sided, (15–)30–45 cm; bracts lanceolate, mostly 2-fid, proximal bracts divided ± to base, distal sometimes undivided. |
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Pedicels | 2–8(–15) mm; involucellar bractlets absent. |
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Flowers | 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. |
bisexual or unisexual and pistillate, plants gynodioecious; calyx 6–10 mm, densely to sparsely stellate-puberulent, hairs usually longer, coarser, 2–4-rayed especially at margins and over veins; petals pinkish rose to pinkish lavender or magenta, pale-veined or not, base often white, 10–25 mm, pistillate darker, 6–15 mm, bisexual 12–25(–30) mm; staminal column 5–6 mm, puberulent; anthers white; stigmas (6 or)7–9. |
Seeds | 1.5–2 mm. |
2.5 mm. |
Schizocarps | 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. |
5–6 mm diam.; mericarps (6 or)7–9, 2.5–3 mm, roughened, glandular-puberulent, lightly to moderately reticulate-veined, pitted, mucro 0.5–1 mm. |
2n | = 20, 40. |
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Sidalcea hartwegii |
Sidalcea sparsifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering (Mar–)Apr–Jun. | Flowering Mar–Jun(–Sep). |
Habitat | Dry to moist, grassy hillsides, foothill woodlands, vernal pools, often on serpentine | Moist, often grassy, open places, often on mesas, chaparral, pine-oak openings |
Elevation | 30–800(–1000) m (100–2600(–3300) ft) | 10–2200 m (0–7200 ft) |
Distribution |
CA
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CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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Discussion | 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.) |
Sidalcea sparsifolia intergrades with S. malviflora subsp. californica and S. neomexicana. None of the varieties described within S. malviflora subsp. sparsifolia is recognized here but one or more of them may merit distinction. Along with S. neomexicana, S. sparsifolia is one of the southern species of Sidalcea and one of the more tolerant of hot, dry, desert conditions. Sidalcea sparsifolia is the most common of the southern California species, occurring in the Sierra Nevada foothills and South Coast Ranges. It has been confused with S. neomexicana and with subspecies of S. malviflora. It can be distinguished from the former by its nonpustulate hairs, fibrous crown, and nonfleshy roots, and from the latter by its inland habitat, larger, ascending inflorescences, and tendency to have mostly basal leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 6, p. 333. | FNA vol. 6, p. 354. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | S. hartwegii var. tenella, S. tenella | S. malviflora subsp. sparsifolia, S. malviflora var. hirsuta, S. malviflora var. stellata, S. malviflora var. uliginosa |
Name authority | A. Gray: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 20. (1849) | (C. L. Hitchcock) S. R. Hill: Madroño 56: 107. (2009) |
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