Gierisch’s globemallow Gierisch’s globemallow

Plants perennial. Stems ascending, usually dark red-purple, 4–10 dm, glabrous or stellate-canescent. Leaf blades green, gray, or gray-green, ovate to cordate-ovate, 3- or 5-lobed, main lobe unlobed in 3-lobed leaves, cleft in 5-lobed leaves, lobes spatulate, 1.2–4 cm, not rugose, base truncate to cordate, margins entire, surfaces stellate-pubescent. Inflorescences paniculate, open, 2–few-flowered per node, tip not leafy; involucellar bractlets green. Flowers: sepals 5–13 mm; petals red-orange, 15–20(–25) mm; anthers purple or yellow. Schizocarps hemispheric; mericarps 10–15, 4.5–5.5 × 3 mm, chartaceous, nonreticulate dehiscent part 40–50% of height, tip acutish, indehiscent part wider than dehiscent part, sides prominently reticulate. Seeds 2 per mericarp, black, pubescent.

Flowering Apr–Jun. Gypsum soil; of conservation concern; 700–1200 m; Ariz., Utah.

Sphaeralcea gierischii is found in Mohave County, Arizona, and Washington County, Utah. Material of S. gierischii is limited and eventually may be found to be conspecific with S. grossulariifolia.