Description :

• Suffruticose perennials, rarely annuals
• Leaves shallowly to deeply 3- or 5-lobed or -partite; stipules subulate
• Flowers axillary, in dense to open cymes
• Epicalyx of 3 free, filiform to lanceolate bracts, usually shorter than calyx
• Calyx ± campanulate
• Petals slightly longer than calyx, reddish orange, pinkish, yellowish to white
• Staminal tube mostly shorter than petals; filaments ± terminal; anthers mostly 50-100
• Gynoecium of (7-) 10-16(-22) free or slightly coherent, 1-3-ovuled carpels; style branches as many as carpels
• Fruit a discoid to hemispherical schizocarp with ± 10-16, 1-3-seeded, partially dehiscent, apically beaked mericarps
• Seeds reniform, pubescent
• x = 5 (high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Sphaeralcea A.St.-Hil.
  • Saint-Hilaire: plate 52 (1827)
  • Krapovickas: 212 (1965)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 60, arid America; several cultivated herbs or subshrubs
• Southern Africa : Species 1: * Sphaeralcea bonariensis (Cav.) Griseb. apparently introduced after 1900 and now fairly widespread, mainly in warm central regions