Index / Search / Sphaeralcea ambigua
§1 Plant
Sphaeralcea ambigua A. Gray
vernacular desert globemallow — species · Malvaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Subshrub
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Malvaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Sphaeralcea
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 10 counties across 1 state§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -6 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 174 min.
- Precipitation
- 5–15 in/yr
- pH range
- 7.5–8.5
- Root depth
- 12 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Multiple Stem
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Medium
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Orange
- Fruit colour
- Orange
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Early Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Rapid
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 450,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Field Collections Only
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Medium
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 10 counties across 1 state.
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/SPAM2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3152473 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T05:06:36Z