Crandall’s wild hollyhock Crandall’s wild hollyhock

Sphaeralcea crandallii Rydberg, Bull. Bot. Torrey Club 31: 564. 1904; Phymosia crandallii (Rydberg) Rydberg

Stems 0.5–0.7 m; herbage sparingly stellate to glabrate, hairs obscurely stellate. Leaf blades deeply 5- or 7-lobed, 5–10 cm wide, lobes narrowly triangular, central lobe 2–3 times longer than lateral lobes, base cordate to truncate, margins coarsely serrate. Inflorescences solitary flowers in distal leaf axils, appearing racemose; involucellar bractlets linear, 8–10 × 1 mm, 1/2–2/3 as long as calyx. Flowers: calyx 10–15 mm, lobes lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 9–12 mm, longer than wide, longer than tube, apex acuminate; petals whitish or pinkish, 2–2.5 cm. Schizocarps unknown. Seeds 2–4 per mericarp, glabrous.

Flowering Jul–Aug. Open forests, stream banks, mountain slopes; 2000–2300 m; Colo.

Iliamna crandallii was described from near Steamboat Springs, Routt County, and is restricted to that area. It has been reported from Rio Blanco County (according to a specimen at COLO). T. A. Bodo Slotta (2000) stated that she collected fresh material of the species at Buffalo Pass and Fish Creek Falls.