Sidalcea hartwegii

Hartweg's checkerbloom

Family: Malvaceae · Type: annual · Native

Hartweg's checkerbloom is a California native annual found in northern California regions including the Cache Range, Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, and San Joaquin Valley (eastern Merced County) on dry grassy hillsides and foothill woodlands, often on serpentine soils at elevations below 600 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces rose-purple flowers 18 to 20 millimeters long in small clusters of 4 to 6 blooms. Growing with slender stems 15 to 40 centimeters tall that are slightly hairy at the base, it develops delicate stems with sparse stellate hairs. Its lower leaves have 5 to 7 narrow linear lobes, creating a fine, intricate leaf structure. The fruit segments are 2.5 to 4 millimeters long with smooth sides and a distinctive net-veined, pitted back surface.

Habitat: dry grassy hillsides, foothill woodland, often serpentine

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 600 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, CaRF, SNF, ScV, SnJV (e Merced Co.).

California counties: Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Butte, Nevada, Lake, Napa, Mendocino, Solano, Tuolumne, Plumas, Siskiyou, Calaveras, Madera, Glenn, Sacramento, Shasta, Sonoma, Merced, Kern, Tehama, Tulare, Sutter, Mariposa, Yuba, Colusa, Stanislaus, Del Norte

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