Plant Name
Scientific Name: Sphaeralcea fendleri
Common Names: Fendler's Globemallow, Thicket Globe-mallow
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Subshrub, Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert (upper elevation foothill canyons), Upland, Mountain
Flower Color: Pink, Pinkish lavender, Orange
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
Height: To 4 feet (1.2 m) tall
Description: The flowers are on tall, slender, graceful flower stalks. The flowers are 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) wide and have 5 broad, fan-shaped, uncupped, notched petals and yellow anthers. The petals are held wide open, almost flat unlike the cupped petals of typical globemallows. The leaves are green, hairy, uncrinkled, unruffled, variably scalloped, usually 3-lobed, and elongated to about twice as long as wide.
The similar Desert Globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) has broader, shorter, scalloped and ruffled leaves, Emory's Globemallow (Sphaeralcea emoryi) has thickened, densely hairy, crinkled, grayish green leaves, and Caliche Globemallow (Sphaeralcea laxa) is much lower growing and has broader, shorter leaves and flowers with dark maroon anthers.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae – Mallow family
Genus: Sphaeralcea A. St.-Hil. – globemallow
Species: Sphaeralcea fendleri A. Gray – Fendler's globemallow
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