Species: Sidalcea nelsoniana

Nelson's Sidalcea
Species
Plants

An herbaceous perennial with palmately lobed basal leaves, upper stem leaves deeply divided, and stems variably covered with simple hairs; plants have short, thick, twisted underground stems as well as a system of fine roots extending from a stout taproot. Plants produce numerous flowering stems 60 to 100 cm tall, each with 30 to 100 pink flowers on very short stalks. Mature plants produce either exclusively female flowers, or flowers with both male and female parts. Female flowers are generally smaller and lack functioning pollen sacs at the ends of the stamens. The stamens are fused at the base to form a tube around the style. Fruits consist of a ring of 7 to 9 single-seeded, beaked segments (like segments of an orange), which separate at maturity (USFWS 1998).

Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Anthophyta
Class

Dicotyledoneae

Order

Malvales

Family

Malvaceae

Genus

Sidalcea

Natureserve Explorer
Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.135057
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Nelson's Checkerbloom - Nelson's checkerbloom
Informal Taxonomy
Plants, Vascular - Flowering Plants - Mallow Family
Formal Taxonomy
Plantae - Anthophyta - Dicotyledoneae - Malvales - Malvaceae - Sidalcea

An herbaceous perennial with palmately lobed basal leaves, upper stem leaves deeply divided, and stems variably covered with simple hairs; plants have short, thick, twisted underground stems as well as a system of fine roots extending from a stout taproot. Plants produce numerous flowering stems 60 to 100 cm tall, each with 30 to 100 pink flowers on very short stalks. Mature plants produce either exclusively female flowers, or flowers with both male and female parts. Female flowers are generally smaller and lack functioning pollen sacs at the ends of the stamens. The stamens are fused at the base to form a tube around the style. Fruits consist of a ring of 7 to 9 single-seeded, beaked segments (like segments of an orange), which separate at maturity (USFWS 1998).

Short General Description
A perennial herb with densely clustered stems, up to 1 m tall. Leaves are increasingly deeply cleft towards the top of the stems. Magenta flowers in a spike-like cluster bloom from late May through mid July.
Reproduction Comments
This species has a gynodioecious breeding system, whereby individuals can either be hermaphroditic (bearing flowers with both male and female sex organs) or female (bearing male-sterile flowers). Because female flowers do not produce pollen, they require insect-mediated outcrossed pollen in order to produce seeds. Although hermaphroditic flowers produce pollen, within-flower self-fertilization is discouraged by protandry, whereby pollen dehisces 2-3 days prior to stigma emergence and receptivity. However, self-fertilization can still occur in hermaphroditic plants through pollen transfer between different flowers on the same inflorescence or between adjacent ramets of the same genet (Gisler 2004). Note that this species can also reproduce vegetatively via rhizomes, but rhizomes are more likely to reproduce vegetatively through breaking, with the broken-off part being moved away from the parent plant, than they are by sending out long rhizomes that give rise to new plants. It is currently unknown to what extent population maintenance in this species is dependent upon asexual expansion versus sexual reproduction (Gisler 2004).
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G2G3
Global Status Last Reviewed
2008-08-13
Global Status Last Changed
1991-02-08
Other Status

LT - LT: Listed threatened - 1993-02-12

Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?US.OR=S2&US.WA=S1" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
Most sites occur in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, from southern Benton County northward through the central and western Willamette Valley to central Washington County. Also found at several higher elevation meadows in the northern Coast Range of Oregon that flank the western Willamette Valley in Yamhill, Washington, Tillamook, Clatsop, and Columbia counties, extending west to the crest of the Coast Range. Two outlying populations are known from the Puget Trough of adjacent southwest Washington, in Cowlitz and Lewis counties. Using GIS tools, extent of occurrence was calculated to be approximately 10,500 square km.
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.135057