566 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 2 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



2. Horsfordia alata (S. Wats.) A. Gray, Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. 

 Proc. 22: 297. 1887. 



Sida alata S. Wats., ibid. 20: 356. 1885. 



Tule Well and Gila Mountains (southern Yuma County), 500 to 

 1,000 feet, sandy washes, March to October. Southwestern Arizona, 

 southeastern California, Sonora, and Baja California. 



The stems reach a height of 3 m. and a diameter at base of 5 cm. 

 The petals turn blue in drying. 



3. SPHAERALCEA. 83 Globemallow 



Plants stellate-pubescent; leaf blades shallowly dentate to pedately 

 dissected; inflorescences racemose or paniculate; calyx nearly always 

 3-bracteolate; corolla usually red (grenadine); fruit hemispheric to 

 truncate-conic; carpels often remaining attached to the axis after 

 maturity by a threadlike extension of the dorsal nerve; ovules and 

 seeds 1 to 3 in each carpel. 



Several of the species flower in spring and again after summer rains. 

 They are known locally in Arizona as sore-eye-poppy, doubtless 

 a translation of the Mexican name mal-de-ojos. The Pima Indian 

 name of these plants signifies "a cure for sore eyes." The Hopi 

 Indians are reported to employ certain species as a remedy for dis- 

 orders of the bowels, and to use the mucilaginous stems, under the 

 name of "kopona," as a substitute for chewing gum. The plants are 

 browsed to some extent by sheep and goats. One species in southern 

 Arizona is a host of the fungus, Phymatotrichum omnivorum, that 

 causes the destructive root rot of cotton and other cultivated plants. 

 Many of the species are difficult to identify, especially in the absence 

 of mature fruit. 



Key to the species 



1. Annual or biennial; petals orange; leaf blades shallowly lobed; carpels very 



thin-walled, the reticulate basal part forming two-thirds or more of the 



carpel and conspicuously wider than the unreticulate apical part (2). 



2. Plant densely yellowish canescent, appearing scurfy; leaf blades thick 



and firm, crenulate; carpels rather deeply notched 1. S. orcuttii. 



2. Plant grayish pubescent, usually rather sparsely and loosely so; leaf blades 



thin and soft, coarsely crenate; carpels shallowly notched. 



2. S. COULTERI. 



1. Perennial; petals usually red (grenadine), sometimes pink or white (3). 



3. Carpels with thick, coriaceous walls, the reticulate part forming two-thirds 



or more of the carpel, conspicuously wider than the unreticulate part; 

 leaf blades, at least the lower ones, 3-parted or divided (4) . 

 4. Stems, leaves, and calyx silvery-lepidote; upper leaf blades entire, linear 

 to narrowly oblanceolate; carpels 7 to 9 15. S. leptophylla. 



4. Stems, leaves, and calyx canescent or more coarsely pubescent; all of the 



leaf blades deeply cleft, parted, or divided; carpels 10 to 14. 



16. S. COCCINEA. 

 3. Carpels with thinner, scarious to chartaceous walls, the reticulate part 

 forming less than two-thirds of the carpel, not conspicuously wider 

 than the unreticulate part (5) . 



5. Walls of the carpels very thin, scarious, the reticulate part with very 



small, transparent areolas (6) . 

 6. Inflorescence narrow, many -flowered, thyrsoid-glomerate. 



3. S. EMORYI. 



*3 Reference: Kearney, Thomas H. the north American species of sphaeralcea svbgenus 

 eusphaeralcea. Calif. Univ. Pubs. Bot. 19: 1-128. 1935. 



