Sphaeralcea coccinea (Scarlet Mallow) - photos and description
General: Low plant with a woody base, decumbent stems, many branched, rhizomatous.
Flowers: Flowers in spikes or terminal clusters, showy, open with a scarlet colour and fade to pale orange. Flowers fragrant. We measured a flower at 25 mm in diameter.
Leaves: Alternate, grey-pubescent with star shaped hairs, woolly hairy on leaf bottoms. Leaves divided into 3 leaflets, each leaflet cleft into 2-3 lobes. I measured a leaflet with petiole to be 4 cm long.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 20 cm. I measured plants to 20 cm tall.
Habitat: Dry prairie in southern Saskatchewan.
Abundance: Very common.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photos taken June 9th, hilltop of the Qu'Appelle River Valley, 40 km north of Regina, June 19th, dry prairie, 200 km southeast of Regina, SK, June 20th clay flats in grassland about 200 km southeast of Regina, SK, and July 13th, prairie roadside, Cypress Hills, about 425 km southwest of our home in Regina, SK.