Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Perennial herb, 8-45 cm tall, from a woody taproot or caudex; stems decumbent or erect; herbage green with scattered stellate pubescence throughout.
Leaves: Alternate along the stems, on petioles; blades thin, 1-4 cm long and about half as wide, narrowly linear-lanceolate to hastately 3-lobed, the margins undulate or with shallow rounded teeth.
Flowers: Orange or pink and solitary in leaf axils, sometimes forming a terminal raceme; most flowers subtended by a filiform bract, 3-4 mm long; sepals 5, fused at the base, 6-11 mm long, stellate-pubescent; petals 5, red-orange or pink, 15-20 mm long.
Fruits: Schizocarp shaped like a flattened sphere, 6-7 mm in diameter, splitting into 14-17 carpels, each 3-5 mm long, strongly pubescent, and containing 1-2 seeds.
Ecology: Found in arid habitats, often in sandy or rocky soils from 3,500-5,500 ft (1067-1676 m); flowers March-September.
Distribution: AZ, NM, s CO, w TX; south to n MEX
Notes: Distinguished by often having a lax, slightly decumbent growth form; relatively small leaves which are half as wide as they are long and either narrowly triangular or else shallowly lobed at the base; herbage which can be gray-green or bright green; and flowers in short racemes at branch tips, often with only one flower per node. An exceptionally variable taxon with an abundance of synonyms, notably S. subhastata, a name which is found in many regional texts. Sphaeralcea spp. can be tricky to tell apart, and the key characteristics are often on the mature fruits, which are small and cheese-wheel shaped, and split apart like the segments of an orange. It is best to make a quality collection with mature fruits for identification.
Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.
Etymology: Sphaeralcea is from the Greek sphaira, a globe, and alcea, the hollyhock genus (a type of mallow); hastulata means spear-shaped, referring to the leaves.
Synonyms: Sphaeralcea subhastata, S. subhastata subsp. connata, S. subhastata var. connata, S. subhastata var. latifolia, S. subhastata subsp. latifolia, S. subhastata subsp. martii, S. subhastata var. martii, S. subhastata var. pumila, S. subhastata subsp. pumila,
Editor: SBuckley 2010, AHazelton 2017
