Tags
native plants, perennial, Plant ID, scarlet globemallow, short grass steppe, Sphaeralcea coccinea, warm season plants
All information from:
North American Wildland Plants, Second Edition
A Field Guide
James Stubbendieck, Stephan L. Hatch, Neal M. Bryan
Illustrated by Angie Fox, Kelly L. Rhodes, Bellamy Parks Jansen, and Debra Meier
Maps by Kathleen Lonergan-Orr and Neal M. Bryan
- Family: Malvaceae
- Species: Sphaeralcea coccinea (Nutt.) Rydb.
- Common Name: Scarlet globemallow (hierba del negro, red falsemallow)
- Life Span: Perennial
- Origin: Native
- Season: Warm
Growth Form: forb (stem 10-50 cm long); flowers in April to August
Floral and Fruit Characteristics:
- Inflorescences: terminal racemes
- Flowers: perfect, deep orange or brick red, drying to pinkish
- Fruits: schizocarp
Vegetative Characteristics
- Leaves: alternate, simple with irregular palmate lobes
- Stems: decumbent or ascending
- Other: entire plant covered in stellate pubescence
Historic, Food, and Medicinal Uses
- Used as a chewed paste to burns, scalds, and external sores as a cooling agent in Blackfoot culture.
Other
- Livestock Losses: none
- Forage Value: excellent for deer and pronghorn, worthless to domestic livestock. Important in Southwest but not in the Great Plains. Increases in abundance with heavy use and during dry periods.
- Habitat: prairies, plains, hills. roadsides, and waste places. Adapted to many soils, prevalent in sand soils.
Plant Mounts
Things to Focus on
- Flower color is usually a deep red or orange drying slightly lighter
- Stellate hairs on leaves and stems
*Please feel free to use the pictures of the plant mounts for studying use: print, reproduce, or use for a dart board to your heart’s content. (I took these so I give you my permission). The image of BOGR in the field is not my image, see copyright image laws to decide if you can utilize this image for your personal uses. *
TGIF, Right?
Maggie Haseman, REC Outreach Officer and Historian
Jenna Lanphier said:
TGIF, indeed. except it is now Sunday evening and another week of plant studying.