Sphaeralcea coulteri

Coulter's globemallow

Family: Malvaceae · Type: annual · Native

Coulter's globemallow is a native annual found in southern Desert of Sonora in dry, sandy places at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces salmon-orange flowers less than 11 millimeters long, creating delicate raceme-like clusters. Growing with sprawling to erect slender stems 15 to 150 centimeters tall and covered with few long, soft hairs, it develops distinctive gray-green leaves. Its leaves are approximately triangular, 15 to 45 millimeters long, with 3 to 5 lobes and a heart-shaped or truncate base, often appearing coarsely toothed. The fruit consists of about 15 segments, each 1.5 to 2 millimeters wide with a small dehiscent portion projecting inward.

Habitat: Uncommon. Dry, sandy places

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: s DSon

California counties: Imperial

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