Sidalcea malviflora subsp. laciniata

Geranium-leaved checkerbloom, Geranium-Leaved Checkerbloom

Family: Malvaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Geranium-leaved checkerbloom is a California native perennial found in southern North Coast Ranges and Central Western California in grasslands and open woodlands at elevations generally below 700 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces pink-lavender to white flowers with white veins, generally 1 to 2.5 centimeters long. Growing with decumbent stems 20 to 80 centimeters tall that are soft-stellate hairy and often rooting at the base, it develops from a short caudex and taproot. Its distinctive leaves are deeply divided with more than 13 linear segments, the basal leaves shallowly 7-lobed and measuring 2 to 6 centimeters wide, with sparse hairs on the upper surface and denser stellate hairs underneath. The fruit segments are approximately 3.5 millimeters long, glandular-puberulent with coarsely net-veined pitting.

Habitat: Grassland, open woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: generally < 700 m

Bioregions: s NCoR, CW.

California counties: Santa Clara, San Benito, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Marin, Sonoma, Monterey, Napa, Alameda, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Tehama, San Bernardino, Mendocino, Contra Costa, Lake, San Francisco, Merced, Solano, San Joaquin

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