Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Streambank Globemallow
Iliamna rivularis
Mallow family (Malvaceae)

This tall, showy wildflower looks like it belongs in a garden where cultivated hollyhocks are commonly found. Wild Hollyhock seeds have a hard coat and can remain viable in the ground for 50 years or more, a trait that allows the plant to successfully germinate following disturbance. It is commonly found in areas recently disturbed by fire or flood. This species is very similar to Iliamna and both are considered rare throughout their range in Colorado and through their range in most other western areas.


©2006 Tony Frates

Description

, 3-6' tall, with large leaves and showy . Pink-white to rose-purple cup-shaped flowers are arranged in long, loose . Flowers are 1-2" wide and are comprised of 5 petals and blunt-tipped above 3 slender . are tipped with head-like . Leaves are , maple-leaf shaped with 3-7 triangular and coarsely- margins. are round and hairy with wedge-shaped segments like a wheel of cheese .

Field Marks

Large plant with pink-rose cup-shaped flowers and leaves.

© Al Schneider

style -- This is a long and thread-like structure that connects the stigma with the ovary. A flower may have a single style, or several of them.

grandiflora -- Large-flowered.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

palmate -- Consisting of leaflets or lobes radiating from the base of the leaf.

stigma - The tip of a pistil that receives the pollen.

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.