4 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded, under 5 mm of rain
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, under 5 mm of rain
- Aug, under 5 mm of rain
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec, shaded
About the genus · Sphaeralcea
Sphaeralcea is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family (Malvaceae). There are about 40-60 species, including annuals, perennials, and shrubs. Most originate in the drier regions of North America, with some known from South America. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sphaeralcea", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
Rain at the habitat is 107 mm in the median year (across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as December to May. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to November.
Rain
107 mm in the median year at the habitat. Wettest month February at 22 mm, driest months (2 at 2 mm); 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 99 mm to 119 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 107 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 107 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.7 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 12.3 °C to 14.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 19.9 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 13.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 15 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar to 20 °C in Aug and Sep; mean nightly low from 14 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr to 19 °C in Aug and Sep. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 4 months in a row that tie for it. 107 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 11 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 15 / 14–16 | 15 / 14–15 | 15 / 14–15 | 16 / 15–16 | 17 / 16–18 | 18 / 17–20 | 19 / 19–21 | 20 / 19–21 | 20 / 20–20 | 19 / 19–19 | 17 / 17–18 | 16 / 15–16 |
| Night °C | 14 / 13–14 | 14 / 12–14 | 14 / 13–14 | 14 / 14–15 | 16 / 15–17 | 17 / 16–19 | 18 / 18–20 | 19 / 18–20 | 19 / 19–19 | 18 / 17–18 | 16 / 15–17 | 15 / 13–15 |
| Rain mm | 15 / 14–16 | 22 / 21–24 | 11 / 10–12 | 6 / 5–7 | 3 / 3–4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 / 5–6 | 11 / 10–12 | 10 / 10–12 | 17 / 16–19 |
| DLI | 23 / 21–25 | 29 / 26–30 | 36 / 34–37 | 43 / 42–44 | 45 / 44–48 | 47 / 46–50 | 46 / 45–49 | 43 / 43–46 | 39 / 38–40 | 31 / 29–32 | 25 / 22–27 | 21 / 19–23 |
| RH % | 60 / 51–66 | 61 / 52–65 | 62 / 52–65 | 62 / 50–65 | 62 / 49–66 | 62 / 45–67 | 64 / 46–70 | 64 / 46–70 | 64 / 50–69 | 63 / 51–68 | 61 / 50–65 | 60 / 51–64 |
The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 12% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.1 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: Stickpen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Brahea edulis Guadalupe Palm Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la Luz Hesperocyparis guadalupensis Cupressaceae 
Nesothamnus incanus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. Stang
Malva occidentalis Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Cistanthe guadalupensis Montiaceae 
Dudleya guadalupensis Guadalupe Dudleya Photo: CC0, ToyonbroOther Sphaeralcea 19 in the reference
Sphaeralcea ambigua Desert globe-mallow Photo: CC BY, Tim Messick
Sphaeralcea angustifolia Copper globe-mallow Photo: CC BY, IDClaire
Sphaeralcea bonariensis Latin globemallow Photo: CC BY, Matias Baranzelli
Sphaeralcea coccinea Scarlet globe-mallow Photo: CC BY, Daughter Dad
Sphaeralcea coulteri Coulter's globemallow Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian Finzel
Sphaeralcea emoryi Emory's desertmallow Photo: CC BY, Ian McFaul
Sphaeralcea fendleri Fendler's globemallow Photo: CC BY, Rachel Stringham
Sphaeralcea fulva La Luna Globemallow Photo: CC BY, Sula Vanderplank
Sphaeralcea grossulariifolia Gooseberry-leaf globe-mallow Photo: CC BY, Michael Good
Sphaeralcea hastulata Spear globemallow Photo: CC BY-SA, bmasinton
Sphaeralcea incana Gray globemallow Photo: CC BY, johnyochum
Sphaeralcea laxa Caliche globemallow Photo: CC0, author not stated all 20 ›Names & registers
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 29.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected +286 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (12% land), so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22commons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.