Sidalcea malvaeflora

Identification

Description

This checker bloom is a perennial with a small cluster of leaves at its base and a 2-3ft. spike of 1 inch deep pink flowers. The stems are rather lax as it grows in perennial grass thickets in seasonal springs. Showy in its delicate way. It needs garden conditions, part shade to full sun. This cute plant is native down the road from us. In the ground in the nursery it stays visible but in its grassy thicket you cannot find it as all it retains is a 4inch clump of leaves. I imagine this is how it protects itself from hungry deer. You can give it unlimited winter water but little summer water. In the wild it grows with Stipa cernua, Stipa pulchera, Muhlenbergia in our area, coastal sage scrub, up into the mixed evergreen forest. From granitic soils, to serpentine, edges of beach sand to heavy clay.. Although the Sidalcea in our county can be broken up into numerous subspecies, laciniata, and sparsiflora, amongst others, they all morph together to make separation difficult and often meaningless.

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