Spear globemallow Spear globemallow

Sphaeralcea arenaria Wooton & Standley; S. glabrescens Wooton & Standley; S. martii Cockerell; S. pumila Wooton & Standley; S. simulans Wooton & Standley; S. subhastata J. M. Coulter; S. subhastata subsp. connata Kearney; S. subhastata var. connata (Kearney) Kearney; S. subhastata subsp. martii (Cockerell) Kearney; S. subhastata var. martii (Cockerell) Kearney; S. subhastata subsp. pumila (Wooton & Standley) Kearney; S. subhastata var. pumila (Wooton & Standley) Kearney; S. subhastata subsp. thyrsoidea Kearney; S. subhastata var. thyrsoidea (Kearney) Kearney

Plants perennial. Stems ascending to decumbent, green to gray-green, 1–3(–5) dm, canescent. Leaf blades green to gray-green, oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, unlobed, lobed, or pedately divided, (1–)2–6 cm, not rugose, base cuneate to cordate, margins entire, crenate, or dentate, usually green or tan, surfaces stellate-pubescent. Inflorescences paniculate or racemose, open or crowded, flowers clustered or solitary, tip leafy or not; involucellar bractlets green to tan. Flowers: sepals 4–11 mm, tips forming beak in bud; petals red-orange, pink, or purple, 10–20 mm; anthers yellow or purple. Schizocarps widely conic; mericarps 10–30, 3–7 × 1.5–2.5 mm, thickish, chartaceous, nonreticulate dehiscent part 60–80% of height, tip obtuse to acute, usually muticous (to mucronate to cuspidate), cusp 1–2 mm, indehiscent part sometimes wider than dehiscent part. Seeds 1 or 2 per mericarp, brown or black, glabrous or pubescent. 2n = 10, 30.

Flowering early spring–fall. Plains, alkaline or gypsum areas; 800–2100 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tamaulipas).

T. H. Kearney (1935) recognized subspecies of Sphaeralcea hastulata; the subspecies are not clearly and consistently distinguishable and are herein combined.