Light or pale or plains poppy mallow, plains wine cup Light or pale or plains poppy mallow, plains wine cup

Sida alcaeoides Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 44. 1803

Plants perennial. Stems 2–8(–28), weakly erect or ascending, 1.5–8.5 dm, hairy, hairs 4-rayed, stellate. Leaves: stipules persistent or tardily deciduous, lanceolate to ovate, 5–12 mm; petiole 2–20(–30) cm; blade triangular, cordate, or ovate, unlobed or shallowly to deeply 5–7-lobed, 4–13(–16) × 3–10 cm, surfaces hairy, hairs both 4-rayed, stellate, and simple abaxially, glabrate or with simple hairs adaxially, lobes, when well developed, lanceolate or linear-falcate. Inflorescences racemose, often appearing corymbose or subumbellate; involucellar bractlets absent. Flowers bisexual or functionally pistillate; calyx lobes valvate in bud, forming apiculate or acuminate point; petals ± evenly white, pink, or mauve, 1.5–2.5(–3) cm (male sterile 0.7–1.7 cm). Schizocarps 7–10 mm diam.; mericarps 12–16, 4–6 × 2.5–3.5 mm, hairy, hairs dense, simple, appressed, indehiscent; beaks prominent, 1.5–2.6 mm; collars well developed, 2-lobed. 2n = 28.

Flowering spring–summer. Plains, prairies, roadsides, waste places; 0–1000(–1500) m; Ala., Ark., Colo., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Mo., Nebr., N.Mex., Okla., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex.

In population samples, flowers of Callirhoe alcaeoides are bisexual or functionally pistillate. This species is unique among the gynodioecious taxa of the genus in having dimorphisms of both petal and calyx lobe size. It is introduced in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, central and eastern Missouri, New Mexico, and southeastern Texas. It probably is extirpated from Alabama and Kentucky.