PLANT: Erect or ascending annual herbs, more or less pubescent, the stems often purplish, apparently hollow.

LEAVES: orbicular in outline, crenate-dentate to more or less deeply parted.

FLOWERS: solitary or grouped in the leaf axils, sometimes aggregated apically; involucel trimerous, the bractlets linear; calyx 5-lobed; petals white, pink, or rose-purple; staminal column glabrous; styles 12-35.

FRUITS: schizocarpic, disk-shaped, glabrous; mericarps 12-35, semi-circular, indehiscent, ridged, blackish.

SEEDS: solitary.

NOTES: 3 spp. from the sw U.S. and nw Mex. (Greek eremiche = of the desert).

REFERENCES: Fryxell, Paul A. 1994. Malvaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27(2), 222-236.