''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'', with the common name chaparral mallow, is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family.ITIS Report: ''Malacothamnus fasciculatus" (Nutt. ex Torr. & A. Gray) Greene
. accessed 1.14.2014. It is found in far western North America.

Distribution

The plant is native to southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and northern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, where it is a common member of the chaparral and

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...

plant communities.

Description

''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'' is a shrub with a slender, multibranched stem growing in height. It is coated thinly to densely in white or brownish hairs. The leaves are oval or rounded in shape, 2 to 11 centimeters long, and sometimes divided into lobes. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

is an elongated cluster of many pale pink flowers with petals under a centimeter long. Malacothamnus fasciculatus var nuttallii 2

Varieties

It is a highly variable plant which is sometimes described as a spectrum of

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

, and which is sometimes hard to differentiate from other ''

Malacothamnus ''Malacothamnus'' (bushmallow) is a genus of shrubs found throughout much of mainland California and on three of the Channel Islands. Outside of California, ''Malacothamnus'' is known from the northern half of Baja California and from a few disju ...

'' species.
:Varieties of the species currently named include: * ''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'' var. ''catalinensis'' — Santa Catalina Island bush-mallow;

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Catalina Island, one of the

Channel Islands of California The Channel Islands () are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, ...

. * ''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'' var. ''fasciculatus''. * ''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'' var. ''nesioticus'' — Santa Cruz Island bush mallow; a rare plant

Santa Cruz Island Santa Cruz Island ( Spanish: ''Isla Santa Cruz'', Chumash: ''Limuw'') is located off the southwestern coast of Ventura, California, United States. It is the largest island in California and largest of the eight islands in the Channel Islands ...

, one of the Channel Islands, on which only ~120 individual plants remain. It is federally listed as an endangered species. * ''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'' var. ''nuttallii'' — endemic to California in the Outer South

Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although th ...

, and Western

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa ...

.CalFlora Database: ''Malacothamnus fasciculatus'' var. ''nuttallii''
Malacothamfasc2

References

External links