''Sphaeralcea coulteri'' is a species of flowering plant in the

mallow family Malvaceae (), or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include cacao, cola, cotton, okra, roselle and durian. There are also some genera co ...

known by the common name Coulter's globemallow. It is native to the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

, its distribution extending from northern Mexico north into

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. It is an annual herb, its slender, hairy stems sprawling or growing erect to a maximum height near 1.5 meters. The thin, gray-green leaf blades are wide and short, heart-shaped or triangular in shape, and measure up to about 5 centimeters long. They have a few wide lobes along the edges which may have teeth or smaller lobes. The leafy

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

bears clusters of flowers each with five wedge-shaped orange petals around a centimeter long, and yellow

anthers The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
coulteri Flora of the California desert regions Flora of Baja California Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Natural history of the Colorado Desert Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Malveae-stub