Plant: herb; Trailing, usually with little pubescence

Leaves: rounded in outline, usually more or less lobed or parted

Flowers: solitary in the leaf axils, the pedicels shorter than the subtending petioles; bracts of involucel 3, lanceolate; calyx 5-7 mm long; petals 6-8 mm long, dark orange, drying brick-red

Fruit: FRUITS schizocarpic, setose, green maturing black; mericarps 16-22, each with 2 apical spines 1.5-3 mm long, divided by internal partition into 2 cells, each with 1 seed; SEEDS 1.5 mm long

Misc: In lawns and gardens in urban habitats; 800 m (2500 ft); Mar-May

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

Stems prostrate or ascending, often rooting at the nodes; lvs broadly ovate to subrotund, 3-5-cleft and irregularly incised; fls on elongate axillary pedicels; pet 3-5 mm; 2n=18. Moist or dry soil and waste places; tropical Amer., n. as a native to S.C. and reputedly Va., and occasionally farther as an adventive.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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