26. Sidalcea reptans Greene, Pittonia. 3: 159. 1897.
[E]
Sierra checkerbloom Sierra checkerbloom
Sidalcea favosa Congdon; S. spicata Greene var. reptans (Greene) Jepson
Herbs, perennial, 0.2–0.5 m, not glaucous, with woody taproot and rootstocks, without well-developed rhizomes, but horizontal stems rhizomelike. Stems scattered, ascending-decumbent or creeping, freely rooting, solid, flowering stems ascending to erect, proximal and midstem densely spreading-long-hirsute, bristles 2–3 mm, often on swollen pads, rarely subglabrous, base without stellate hairs, distally somewhat stellate-puberulent. Leaves basal and cauline; stipules on prostrate stems wide-lanceolate to ovate, 5–7 × 2–5 mm, elsewhere 3–6 × 1.3–2 mm; petiole 3–8(–15) cm, longest on basal leaves, proximalmost 3 times blade length, reduced distally; blades: proximalmost suborbiculate, unlobed or very shallowly lobed, 2.5–5 × 2.5–5 cm, base wide-cordate, margins deeply crenate, apex rounded, surfaces usually bristly, hairs long, simple, to subglabrous, not stellate-hairy; distal rather similar to proximalmost or more deeply palmately 3–5(–7)-lobed or toothed, lobes simple or 3-dentate. Inflorescences erect, open or some flowers overlapping, calyces not conspicuously overlapping except sometimes in bud, unbranched, usually 2–10-flowered, flowers 1+ cm apart, not much elongated, usually 1-sided, (5–)10–20 cm; bracts linear or narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 2-fid, usually inrolled, proximal separated to base, 2–4 mm, usually equaling or slightly longer than pedicels, much shorter than calyx. Pedicels 2–5 mm; involucellar bractlets absent. Flowers bisexual; calyx (6.5–)8–10 mm, somewhat accrescent, stellate-puberulent, marginal hairs longer, sometimes few glandular, multicellular, lobes sometimes dull purplish at tips; petals dark pink to pale lavender-pink, usually pale-veined, 12–20 mm; staminal column 6–7 mm, minutely hirtellous; anthers white; stigmas (6–)8–10. Schizocarps 6 mm diam.; mericarps (6–)8–10, 3 mm, roughened, top, back, mucro densely stellate-puberulent, deeply reticulate-veined, pitted, mucro 1 mm. Seeds 1.5–2 mm. 2n = 20.
Flowering Jun–Aug. Moist meadows, dry places in pine forests; 1100–2500 m; Calif.
Sidalcea reptans is generally distinguished by its long-creeping, freely rooting stems with ascending ends that are long bristly-hairy proximally, its wide stipules on the proximal stems, its proximal leaves that are unlobed, crenate, long-bristly hairy, and on relatively long petioles, and its mericarps that are densely stellate-puberulent on their top and back and on the relatively long mucro. It occurs at relatively high elevations for Sidalcea and is found mainly in the central high Sierra Nevada.