278 MALVACEAE (MALLOW FAMILY) 



poisonous, but Pammel * states that " there is no evidence to sup- 

 port this view." (Fig. 194.) 



Stems two to ten inches in height, growing in tufts from a peren- 

 nial deep-boring taproot. Alternate leaves but 

 one or two inches long, rounded oval in outline 

 but deeply three- to five-lobed and the seg- 

 ments again incised ; lower leaves with slender 

 petioles but those above nearly sessile. Flowers 

 in crowded terminal racemes on each of the 

 numerous stalks, brick red in color, each blos- 

 som a half-inch or more across, the five petals 

 often slightly notched at the tips and longer 

 than the pointed calyx-lobes ; styles five or 

 more, surrounded by the ring of many united 

 stamens. Carpels, ten to fifteen, rough, net- 

 veined, and usually but one-seeded. 



Means of control 



FIG 194 Red Infested pastures should be broken up and 

 False Mallow (Mai- reseeded to better forage. Until this is done 

 vastrum coccineum). sucn wee ds can be guarded against only by 

 herding away from them the animals for which 

 they seem to be unwholesome. 



PRICKLY SIDA 

 Slda spirited, L. 



Other English names : Thistle Mallow, Spiny Sida. 



Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : Late May to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Maine to Michigan, Iowa, and Kansas, southward to 



Florida and Texas. 

 Habitat : Dry clay soils ; fields, gardens, pastures, and waste 



places. 



An emigrant from tropical America, which is gradually gaining 

 ground to the north and the west. Stems eight to twenty inches 



1 Manual of Poisonous Plants. 



