Common names: Desert mallow
Etymology: Greek eremia, desert, and alkea, mallow, alluding to habitat
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 6. Treatment on page 246. Mentioned on page 219, 247.
 TaxonIllustrator 
FNA6 P28 Callirhoe leiocarpa.jpegCienfuegosia yucatanensis
Eremalche rotundifolia
Eremalche parryi subsp. parryi
Callirhoe involucrata var. involucrata
Callirhoe leiocarpa
Linny Heagy
Linny Heagy
Linny Heagy

Herbs, annual, sometimes gynodioecious. Stems prostrate to erect, sparsely to densely hairy. Leaves: stipules caducous, subulate; blade reniform-round, unlobed or palmately 3-, 5-, [7-] cleft, base truncate to cordate, margins usually toothed, sometimes entire. Inflorescences axillary, solitary flowers in lower axils, congested and ± corymbose at branch tips; involucellar bractlets persistent, 3, distinct. Flowers: calyx not accrescent, not inflated, lobed to beyond middle, lobes not ribbed, acuminate; corolla campanulate, white to rose, lavender, or mauve, drying purple or blue; staminal column included; ovary 9–36-carpellate; ovules 1 per carpel; styles 9–36-branched (branches equal in number to carpels); stigmas terminal, capitate. Fruits schizocarps, oblique, not inflated, depressed-discoid, edge corrugate or reticulate, glabrous; mericarps 9–36, drying black, 1-celled, without spur, ± spheric, unarmed, lateral walls ± disintegrated, indehiscent. Seeds ascending, 1 per mericarp, black, obovoid-reniform, glabrous. x = 10.

Distribution

sw United States, nw Mexico

Discussion

Species 3 (3 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Key

1 Leaf blades unlobed; petals magenta-spotted at base; mericarps 2.8–3.5 mm. Eremalche rotundifolia
1 Leaves lobed or parted; petals not spotted; mericarps 1.4–1.8 mm > 2
2 Flowers bisexual; petals 4–5.5 mm, ± equaling calyx; plants prostrate to decumbent. Eremalche exilis
2 Flowers bisexual or pistillate; petals 5.5–20(–25) mm, equaling or exceeding calyx; plants erect, main stem unbranched or with ascending branches from base. Eremalche parryi
... more about "Eremalche"
David M. Bates +, Malvastrum A. Gray subsect. Pedunculosa A. Gray in A. Gray et al. +, Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1 - 1 +  and 2: 308. 1897 +
Greene +
truncate +  and cordate +
palmately +, unlobed +  and reniform-round +
lobed +  and not inflated +
not accrescent +
indehiscent +  and loculicidal +
Desert mallow +
white +  and rose lavender or mauve drying purple or blue +
campanulate +
sw United States +  and nw Mexico +
reticulate +  and corrugate +
sparse;copious +
Greek eremia, desert, and alkea, mallow, alluding to habitat +
pistillate +  and staminate +
unisexual +  and bisexual +
tough-fibrous +
connate +  and distinct +
simple +, stipulate +, sessile +, subsessile +  and petiolate +
distichous +  and alternate +
acuminate +
unarmed +  and 1-celled +
9-36-carpellate +
adnate +  and distinct +
Leafl. Bot. Observ. Crit. +
obovoid-reniform +
persistent +
sessile +  and subsessile +
prostrate;erect +
filiform +, linear +  and capitate +
1-2 times number of carpels +
9-36-branched +
Mallow +
Eremalche +
Malvaceae subfam. Malvoideae +