Vernal-pool or annual or hog-walla checkerbloom Vernal-pool or annual or hog-walla checkerbloom

Sidalcea sulcata Curran ex Greene

Plants annual, (0.2–)0.3–0.6(–0.9) m, with taproot, sometimes fleshy, usually glabrous. Stems usually erect, rarely proximally decumbent, rooting. Leaves mostly cauline, basal leaves usually persistent, 1–3; stipules lanceolate to ovate, 2–5 mm; petiole of proximalmost leaves often 4–5 times as long as blade, that of distal leaves 1/2 times to as long as blade; blades: basal unlobed, 2–5 cm wide, margins crenate, distal as in species. Inflorescences single or multiple from distal nodes; bracts ovate to wide-elliptic or narrower, sometimes 2-fid, 2–6 mm, shorter than or equaling pedicel, not obscuring calyx, glabrous or ciliate. Pedicels 4–5 mm. Flowers: calyx 4–7 mm; petals (9–)10–25 mm. Schizocarps 5–9 mm diam.; mericarps 2.5 mm. Seeds 2 mm.

Flowering Mar–Jun(–Aug). Wet places, especially vernal pools, hog wallows, swales, foothill woodlands and chaparral openings; 0–1200 m; Calif.

Subspecies calycosa is typically a spring-flowering, annual, taprooted plant of the vernal pool regions of northern and central California and can be locally common. It is variable in size dependent on local growing conditions; dwarfed or nearly leafless plants are often found.