Sphaeralcea coulteri (S. Watson) A. Gray

Coulter’s globemallow

Similar species

	Sphaeralcea ambigua	You are here Sphaeralcea coulteri	Sphaeralcea incana
Common Name	desert mallow	Coulter’s globemallow	gray globemallow
Plant	Perennial shrubs are up to 1½–3′ tall ⨉ 2–3′ around (50–101 ⨉ 60–91 cm), with up to 100 stems emerging from the same root.	6–59″ (15–150 cm) high, on sprawling stems.	A perennial subshrib 3–6′ (91–182 cm) tall, with 3-5 erect, rarely branched stems that are yellow to yellow-green.
Leaves	Gray-green, fuzzy with tiny white hairs. They vary in shape, and have wavy, crenate margins.	Gray-green, soft, thin, with three or five rounded lobes with coarse teeth, ½–1¾″ (1.5–4.5 cm) long.	Alternate, gray-green, rough and thickly hairy with short hairs, at least roughly deltate, unlobed or with three shallow lobes, ½–2½″ (1.3–6.3 cm) long. Leaf margins are entire, and may be crentate or wavy.
Flowers	Bowl shaped, brilliant orange to apricot in color, 2–3″ (5–7.6 cm) around, with five petals. (A sub­species, S. ambigua var. rosacea , has laven­der, pink, or white petals.) Flowers are in panicles atop upper stems. Flowers appear in spring, and after rains.	Red-orange, white, or lavender flowers ⅜–¾″ (9.5–19 mm) long have five roughly trapezoidal petals. Flowers appear from March to April.	The upper stalk is festooned with attractive orange-red flowers (sometimes pink or white), in crowded panicles of three to four. Flowers are bowl-shaped, 1–1½″ (2.5–3.8 cm) around, with five petals and a column of stamens tipped with a yellow anther. Flowers appear from June to October.
Fruit	Globular brown schizocarps break into nine or more segments, each with up to 2 seeds.	Rounded, black.	Schizocarps are shaped like small hem­i­spheres, and containing 11-15 mericarps, each ⅛–3/16 ⨉ ~1/16″ (4–5.5 ⨉ 2–2.5 mm) in size. Each mericarp in turn contains 2 brown seeds.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Dry, rocky slopes, clay soils, edges of sandy washes, roadsides, and disturbed areas, at elevations below 3500′ (1 km) in Arizona, and 500–7500′ (152–2286 m) in California.	Creosote bush scrub, below 1000′ (304 m)	Sandy, gravelly, clay-loam soils, roadsides; prairies, desert scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands, at elevations of 4000–7000′ (1.2–2.1 km).

Sphaeralcea coulteri description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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