Spreading with rhizomes, colonies of this 3-foot tall mallow grow in wet meadows and moist soils along streams. The spike-like clusters on the stem tips have up to 20 pink to magenta flowers, but only a few bloom at a time from the bottom up. Note the stem leaves are palmate with narrow lobes spreading from a point like fingers on a hand. Also called Rocky Mountain Checkermallow.

FLOWER: April–September. Flowers 1 1/2 inch wide (4 cm) with 5 rose-pink to magenta petals with whitish veins. The central stamen column stands about 1/4 inch tall (5 cm) topped with an cluster of white stamens, like a miniature garden hibiscus.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem, variable in shape; leaf stalks (petioles) get shorter up the stem. Basal blades rounded, 1–2 inches wide (2.5–5 cm), often with shallow teeth or lobes. Stem leaves have 5–7 narrow lobes shallowly to deeply cut to the center attachment point.

HABITAT: Moist loamy soils of mountain meadows, spring seeps, stream banks, roadside ditches; pine-aspen-Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 5,000–9,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, NE, NV, NM, OR , TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: White Checkermallow, Sidalcea candida, in much the same habitat and range, has white flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Western 2/3 of NM in mid- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinney, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.