Smoky Mountain globemallow Smoky Mountain globemallow

Sphaeralcea grossulariifolia (Hooker & Arnott) Rydberg var. fumariensis S. L. Welsh & N. D. Atwood, Rhodora 103: 82, fig. 4. 2001

Plants perennial. Stems ascending, gray-green, red-purple basally, 2–5.5 dm, pubescent. Leaf blades gray-green, cordate, pedately divided with usually 5 main lobes, 1–4.5 cm, not rugose, base cordate to truncate, margins entire, surfaces densely stellate-pubescent. Inflorescences paniculate, crowded, tip not leafy; involucellar bractlets reddish. Flowers: sepals 7.5–12 mm; petals red-orange, 12–17 mm; anthers yellow. Schizocarps hemispheric; mericarps 10–14, 3–4 × 2–3 mm, chartaceous, nonreticulate dehiscent part 50–65% of height, tip rounded, indehiscent part not wider than dehiscent part, sides reticulate. Seeds 1(or 2) per mericarp, brown to black, glabrous or stellate-pubescent.

Flowering May–Jun. Alluvium of mudstone, shale, and sandstone formations; 1300–1700 m; Utah.

Sphaeralcea fumariensis is similar to S. moorei but is notably gray-green pubescent in contrast to the less pubescent and green S. moorei. See 11. S. grossulariifolia for discussion. Sphaeralcea fumariensis is known from Kane County.