Sphaeralcea
globe-mallow
erect or decumbent to ascending, stellate-canescent to stellate-silvery-lepidote, rarely glabrous.
petiolate or sessile;
stipules persistent or deciduous, linear;
blade linear, lanceolate, orbiculate, or ovate to triangular, trullate, or cordate, unlobed or pedately dissected, base tapered, cuneate, or truncate to cordate, margins entire or crenate to serrate.
terminal, racemes or panicles, or flowers sometimes fascicled or in axillary cymose racemes;
involucel absent or present, involucellar bractlets inflated, cylindric, ovoid, flattened-spheric, flattened-spheric-conic, hemispheric, widely conic, truncate-conic, spheric, truncate-ovoid, ellipsoid, short-urceolate, helmet-shaped, or truncate-spheric, indurate, hairy;
mericarps [7–]9–30, drying tan to brown, 1- or 2-celled, without dorsal spur, distally extended or not, usually smooth, apex cuspidate, truncate, or acute, with or without seeds, proximally usually rugose-reticulate and indehiscent, distally ± dehiscent, often remaining attached to fruit axis after maturity by threadlike extension of dorsal vein.
1 or 2(or 3) per mericarp, glabrous or slightly pubescent.
= 5.
Sphaeralcea
Species ca. 50 (26 in the flora).
Sphaeralcea is often collected and somewhat difficult to identify. The species boundaries are not always sharp because there is frequent hybridization, polyploidy, and morphological variation in response to environmental conditions, particularly rainfall. Plants growing in Arizona are particularly difficult to identify.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants annual, biennial, or perennial; mericarps: dehiscent part 10–75% of height, indehiscent part ± equaling to usually wider than dehiscent part | → 2 |
1. Plants perennial; mericarps: dehiscent part 50–85% of height, indehiscent part usually not notably wider than dehiscent part | → 9 |
2. Leaf blade surfaces silvery stellate-lepidote. | S. leptophylla |
2. Leaf blade surfaces stellate-pubescent or stellate-canescent | → 3 |
3. Plants annual; mericarps 1.5–2 mm; leaf blades gray-green pubescent, unlobed or 3–5-lobed. | S. coulteri |
3. Plants usually perennial, sometimes annual or biennial; mericarps 2–5.5 mm; leaf blades green, pale green, yellow, yellow-green, or gray, light gray, or gray-green pubescent, unlobed, or if green or gray to green pubescent, leaves unlobed, 3–5-lobed, or pedately divided | → 4 |
4. Leaf blades trullate or triangular, not deeply divided. | S. orcuttii |
5. Stems 1–3(–5) dm | → 7 |
6. Sepals 5–13 mm; petals 15–20(–25) mm | S. gierischii |
6. Sepals 4.5–8.5 mm; petals 8–15 mm | S. moorei |
7. Leaf blades pedately divided, lobes relatively narrow | S. pedatifida |
7. Leaf blades usually 3–5-lobed, sometimes pedately divided with relatively broad lobes | → 8 |
8. Leaf blades 3–5-lobed or pedately divided, green to gray-green, stellate-canescent; bractlets deciduous. | S. coccinea |
8. Leaf blades 3–5-lobed, yellow-green, sparsely stellate-canescent, bractlets persistent. | S. psoraloides |
9. Inflorescences usually racemose, sometimes paniculate | → 10 |
9. Inflorescences paniculate | → 15 |
10. Leaf blades 3-lobed to pedately divided; inflorescences racemose. | S. digitata |
10. Leaf blades unlobed, 3-lobed, or pedately divided; inflorescences racemose or paniculate | → 11 |
11. Stems decumbent; leaf blades abaxially white to silvery, adaxially green; coastal Texas. | S. lindheimeri |
11. Stems usually ascending to erect, sometimes decumbent; leaf blades green, yellow-green, or gray-green; w Texas and sw United States | → 12 |
12. Leaf blades ovate to deltate, unlobed or 3-lobed | → 13 |
12. Leaf blades oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate and unlobed, or widely ovate or triangular to orbiculate and pedately divided | → 14 |
13. Stems 5–10 dm; widely distributed. | S. ambigua |
13. Stems 2–2.5 dm; restricted to Beaver and Millard counties, Utah, or Nye County, Nevada. | S. caespitosa |
14. Leaf blades unlobed; sepals forming beak in bud. | S. hastulata |
14. Leaf blades usually pedately divided (all but proximalmost); sepals not forming beak in bud. | S. wrightii |
15. Inflorescences open | → 16 |
16. Leaf blades unlobed or weakly 3-lobed; stems yellow- to yellow-green canescent or gray- to white-canescent; anthers yellow, gray, or purple; petals red-orange, apricot, lavender, pink, or white. | S. ambigua |
16. Leaf blades 3-lobed or 3- or 5-parted; stems gray- to white-tomentose; anthers usually purple; petals red-orange. | S. laxa |
17. Leaf blades linear to lanceolate or broadly trullate, unlobed to hastately lobed to angulate; inflorescences usually with leaves throughout. | S. angustifolia |
18. Leaf blades unlobed, elongate-deltate, oblong-ovate, ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate, triangular, ovate, or deltate, or weakly 3–5-lobed | → 19 |
18. Leaf blades usually strongly 3–5-lobed or pedately divided | → 22 |
19. Stems yellow to yellow-green, rubbery; leaf blades deltate or elongate-deltate, sometimes lobed, center lobe sometimes elongate, lobes relatively broad; sepal tips not forming beak in bud. | S. incana |
20. Leaf blades oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate; stems 1–3(–5) dm; sepal tips forming beak in bud. | S. hastulata |
20. Leaf blades ovate to triangular, unlobed or weakly lobed; stems 1.5–10 dm; sepal tips not forming beak in bud | → 21 |
21. Stems green to gray-green canescent; leaf margins coarsely toothed; primarily Nevada, Utah, and north. | S. munroana |
21. Stems white- to yellow-canescent; leaf margins entire or crenate to serrate; primarily Nevada, Utah, and south. | S. parvifolia |
22. Leaf blades 3(–5)-lobed; stems (2–)4–30 dm | → 23 |
22. Leaf blades usually deeply lobed or pedately divided, sometimes highly dissected; stems 1–10 dm | → 26 |
23. Stems (2–)4–7(–10) dm, usually sparsely canescent or hirsute; petals red-orange. | S. fendleri |
23. Stems 10–30 dm, glabrous or hairy; petals red-orange, red, pink, white, lavender, purple, or rose-purple | → 24 |
24. Leaf blades ovate-triangular to lanceolate, 3-lobed; inflorescence tip not leafy; stem glabrous or coarse-canescent. | S. emoryi |
24. Leaf blades deltate, lanceolate, ovate, triangular, or cordate, subhastate to 3-lobed; inflorescence tip leafy; stem indument soft | → 25 |
25. Mericarps 12–14, 3.5–5.5 mm. | S. polychroma |
25. Mericarps 10, usually 3 mm. | S. procera |
26. Stems (2–)4–10 dm | → 27 |
26. Stems 1–3(–6) dm | → 28 |
27. Leaf blade surfaces hirsute, sparsely pubescent, or densely soft-pubescent, lobed, appearing green to gray-green. | S. fendleri |
27. Leaf blade surfaces stellate-pubescent, commonly lobed or pedately divided, appearing yellow-green to gray-green to green. | S. grossulariifolia |
28. Stems green to gray-green; bractlets and leaf margins not red, reddish, or purple, usually green or tan. | S. hastulata |
28. Stems gray-green to purple (red-purple basally in S. fumariensis); bractlets and sometimes leaf margins red, reddish, or purple | → 29 |
29. Leaf blades densely stellate-pubescent; anthers yellow; mericarps 10–14, 3–4 mm. | S. fumariensis |
29. Leaf blades sparsely stellate-pubescent; anthers usually red to purple, sometimes yellow; mericarps 13, 4.5–6 mm. | S. rusbyi |
CA
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
