Cusick's checkerbloom

Description

Sidalcea cusickii, or Cusick's checkerbloom, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It is endemic to Oregon in the United States. This species is a perennial herb reaching 1.8 meters in maximum height. It grows from a thick taproot and rhizomes. It produces several purple-tinged, often hollow stems lined with toothed, palmate leaves. They bear dense, spike-shaped inflorescences of many flowers. This plant grows in moist to wet areas with fertile soils, such as mountain meadows. It may be associated with rushes and camas. Sidalcea is a genus (approx. 25 species) of the botanical family Malvaceae. It contains several species of flowering plants known generally as checkerblooms or checkermallows, or prairie mallows in the United Kingdom. They can be annuals or perennials, some rhizomatous. They are native to West and Central North America. In mid- to late summer the clumps of toothed basal leaves produce erect flowering stems, with 5-petalled mallow-type flowers in terminal racemes, in shades of pink, white and purple. Sidalcea is generally diploid (2n = 20), but polyploidy (4n, 6n) also occurs. Annuality appears to have evolved multiple times (4+) within this genus, although an ancestral annual state with annual paraphyly is also possible. Further, evolution rates within annual Sidalcea lineages appear to be faster than those of perennial lineages, at least when examining nuclear ribosomal DNA (internal and external transcribed spacer regions).