This section is from the book "A Guide To The Wild Flowers", by Alice Lounsberry. Also available from Amazon: A Guide to the Wild Flowers.
(Plate L.)
Mallow.
White or cream.
Scentless.
Colorado southward.
Summer and early autumn.
Flowers: growing in a terminal raceme. Calyx: of five ovate sepals; bristly on the outside. Corolla: of five obcordate petals. Stamens: numerous, capitate at the top of the style. Style and ovary bristly on the outside. Fruit: flat, depressed. Leaves: alternate; the upper leaves three, five, or seven-parted, with entire, lanceolate segments; the lower ones seven-parted, with segments coarsely three and five toothed. Stem: erect.
Following the water-courses in the southern and Rocky mountains we find this pretty member of the mallow family. Its numerous stamens uniting into a tube serve readily to place it, although it is without the involucre that is commonly associated with this family.
 
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