Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

White Checkermallow
Sidalcea candida
Mallow family (Malvaceae)

White Checkermallow is very similar to its cousin, Salt Spring Checkerbloom (Sidalcea neomexicana). White Checkermallow grows straight, slim, and tall (to more than three feet) and has clusters of two inch white flowers making it an attractive and conspicuous plant. Look for it in the same moist forests and that Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) grows in. The two often grow so densely that they completely obscure the ground with their tall luxuriant growth.

"Candida" is Latin for "white." In 1849 Asa Gray named this and Sidalcea candida from specimens collected by Augustus Fendler in 1847 in "moist " in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "Sida" and "alcea" are two other Mallows.


©2009 Jerry Friedman

Description

, from slender with stems from 16-40" tall, to hairy with simple hairs below and forked hairs above. Leaf to 8" wide, ones shallowly 5-7 and coarsely set with rounded , the upper leaves divided into 3-5 segments. Petals most commonly white but may be a bit pink, often drying yellow, from 1/2 to less than 1" long.

Field Marks

Tall, slender wetlands plant with varying leaf shapes and many white flowers.

© Al Schneider

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.

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

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

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

Occuring at or very close to a margin.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

blade -- Just the flat part of a leaf. Not the stem.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.