WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

 
 

Erect to sprawling stems reach 12–16 inches tall with elongated clusters of red-orange, cup-shaped flowers. Note the anthers on the stamen column are dark red. The leaf bade has a rounded outline and is divided into slender, finger-like segments. Star-shaped hairs lightly cover the foliage and flowers (use lens).


FLOWER: April–September. Red-orange, in elongated clusters with 1–3 flowers per node, totaling 10-20 flowers; 5 petals, each 5/16–9/16-inch long (8–14 mm); stamen column showy with purple anthers. Note the tiny, hair-like bractlets beneath each flower.  Fruits are cylindric, cheese-wheel shaped pods that dry and split into 9–13 chambers with one seed each.


LEAVES: Alternate. Blades rounded in outline, 5/8–1 5/8 inches long (1.5–4 cm) and about as wide, and palmately divided to the base into 3–5 finger-like, lance-shaped segments, which may have 1–2 small lobes.


HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly, clay, limestone, volcanic soils; slopes, canyons, meadows, roadsides; desert scrub, grasslands, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa forests.


ELEVATION: 4,000–7,200 feet.


RANGE: AZ, NM, TX, UT.


SIMILAR SPECIES: Several globemallow species in NM have palmately lobed leaves. Scarlet Globemallow, S. coccinea, has palmate leaves with each segment divided into several lobes. Gooseberry Globemallow, S. grossulariifolia, has tiny, hair-like bractlets beneath each flower and leaves elongated (not rounded in outline) with finger-like segments divided into lobes.


NM COUNTIES: Western half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Otero, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Valencia.

PALMATE  (JUNIPER)  GLOBEMALLOW

SPHAERALCEA  DIGITATA

Mallow Family, Malvaceae

Perennial herb

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Leaves are palmately divided into 3-5 narrow fingers, which may be lobed.

The stamen column has dark red anthers.

Flowers in elongated cluster with 1–3 flowers per node.