Malacothamnus foliosus

Ensenada bushmallow

Family: Malvaceae · Type: shrub

Ensenada bushmallow is a naturalized shrub found in early-recovering post-burn woody vegetation and edges of openings at an elevation of 420 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces flowers with petals up to approximately 2 centimeters long. Growing as a shrub up to 2.5 meters tall, it occasionally spreads by rhizomes and features sparsely to densely stellate-hairy stems with surface sometimes visible through the hairs. Its leaf blades are roughly round to widely ovate, obscurely to moderately 3 to 5-lobed, with ashy green to bright green surfaces and slightly paler undersides. The plant's bracts are awl-shaped or oblong, sometimes curved, with calyx lobes ranging from 4.5 to 13.5 millimeters long and lance-ovate to widely ovate in shape.

Habitat: Early-recovering post-burn woody vegetation, edges of openings, some plants occasionally persisting into more mature vegetation stages

Bloom period: (Mar)Apr-May(Jun)

Elevation: 420 m

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.