Numerous hairy, yellowish-gray/brown stems branch from the base and can reach 36 inches tall. Large, showy, solitary flowers grow from the branch tips and upper leaf axils. Note the pink to lavender (or whitish) flowers have 5 overlapping petals with reddish-purple lines or spots at the base, and a showy column of pink filaments with reddish-orange anthers. Dense hairs cover the stem and oval to triangular (not lobed) leaves.

FLOWER: Year round, peaks in spring. Flowers to 3-inches diameter with 5 petals, each 3/4-1-inch long (2–2.5 cm); stamen column has numerous pink filaments tipped with anthers with reddish-orange pollen.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades yellowish-green, oval to triangular, 5/8–1 1/4-inches long (1.5–3 cm); margins entire or with shallow teeth, surfaces densely hairy with stellate (star-shaped) hairs, prominently veined below.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, desert washes, slopes, mesas, and hills; desert creosote bush scrub.

ELEVATION: Up to 5,150 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, NM, NV, TX; Mexico.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Desert Rosemallow, H. coulteri,  (see photo) in Otero County, NM and AZ and the Trans-Pecos TX, has pale yellow flowers with reddish-purple lines or spots at the base, and upper leaves with 3 deep lobes.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM counties in low-elevation, desert habitats: Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Otero, Sierra.