San Luis Obispo or Jones’s bushmallow San Luis Obispo or Jones’s bushmallow

Malvastrum jonesii Munz, Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 24: 88. 1925; Malacothamnus gracilis (Eastwood) Kearney; M. niveus (Eastwood) Kearney; Malvastrum fremontii Torrey ex A. Gray var. niveum (Eastwood) McMinn; M. gracile Eastwood; M. niveum Eastwood

Shrubs, 1–2.5 m, branches slender, flexuous, indument white, usually velvety, not shaggy, stellate hairs stalked, sometimes sublepidote, ca. 10–30-armed, glandular hairs often abundant. Leaf blades ash green, ovate, ± rhombic, or suborbiculate, unlobed or 3- or 5-lobed, 2.5–4.5(–7) cm, thin to thick, surfaces: soft tomentose-white, adaxial pale ash green, white-velvety, basal sinus open, not overlapping. Inflorescences open-paniculate or subracemose, flower clusters pedunculate, loose, 3(–6)-flowered, or solitary flowers; involucellar bractlets awl-shaped to filiform, 2.5–7(–8) × 1 mm, 1/3–1/2(–2/3) calyx length. Flowers: calyx campanulate, not angled in bud, 5–9(–10) mm, lobes distinct in bud, narrowly triangular or deltate-lanceolate, 3–6(–7.5) × 1.5–3(–4) mm, length 2 times width, equaling to 3 times tube length, apex acute to short-acuminate, usually sublepidote to tomentose, hairs 10–30-armed, sometimes densely lanate; petals pale pink, to 1 cm. Mericarps 2.5–3.8 mm. 2n = 34.

Flowering late Apr–Jun. Open chaparral, foothill woodlands; 200–900 m; Calif.

Malacothamnus jonesii is known from the central Coast Ranges.