Dwarf harsh checkerbloom Dwarf harsh checkerbloom

Sidalcea reptans Greene var. nana Jepson, Fl. Calif. 2: 489. 1936; S. malviflora (de Candolle) A. Gray subsp. nana (Jepson) C. L. Hitchcock

Plants 0.1–0.3(–0.4) m, with caudex or not, with rhizomes freely rooting, 5–20 cm × 2(–3) mm. Stems decumbent-ascending to erect, sometimes proximally prostrate, rooting, not brittle, densely, harshly stellate-puberulent to glabrate, hairs 0.1–0.5(–0.7) mm, usually less dense distally. Leaves mostly basal, cauline 1–3+, gradually reduced distally; petioles of proximal leaves 5–10 cm, 1–4 times as long as blade, those of distal leaves 1/2 times to as long as blade; blades: basal usually palmately 7-lobed, or deeply crenate, 2.2–2.7(–4) × 2–2.3(–4) cm, base cordate or sinus wide to narrow, apex rounded, cauline deeply 3–7-lobed, 1.5–3 cm, lobes usually apically 3-toothed or distalmost entire, surfaces hairy, more densely stellate-puberulent adaxially, hairs usually 2–4-rayed (simple), bristly. Inflorescences ascending, usually unbranched, subscapose, usually 1-sided, pistillate usually 9–14-flowered, bisexual 2–9(–19)-flowered; bracts linear to lanceolate, stipulelike, 2–2.5(–4) mm, shorter than to as long as pedicel. Pedicels 3–4 mm. Flowers: calyx 5–7(–12) mm; petals pink, pistillate 9–11 mm, bisexual 15–20(–28) mm; stigmas 7 or 8. Schizocarps 7–8 mm diam.; mericarps 7 or 8, 4 mm, reticulate-rugose-veined, sides and back pitted, mucro 1 mm, with few minute bristles. Seeds 2.8 mm.

Flowering Jun–Aug(–Sep). Open woodlands, grassy margins, yellow pine-Douglas fir forests, usually serpentine; 400–1900 m; Calif., Oreg.

Subspecies nana has been confused with subsp. asprella, Sidalcea celata, S. elegans, and S. glaucescens and has been placed within S. malviflora. The type specimen (Jepson 14061) has small individuals with only two or three flowers and long rhizomes, and it does superficially resemble S. reptans, as Jepson suggested, but more robust individuals have more flowers and clearly show vegetative and reproductive similarity to subsp. asprella.

Subspecies nana occurs from California in the northern Sierra Nevada to southwestern Oregon.