Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Callirhoe involucrata

 
Callirhoe involucrata

poppy mallow; winecups

Common name poppy mallow; winecups
Family malvaceae
Life cycle perennial
Flowers deep purple (June)
Size sprawler
Light sun
Cultural notes ordinary garden soil
From seed nick, germinate at room temperature
detailed seed-starting info below
Seed ripenslate August

I love the way this peeks through the plants surrounding it: its growth pattern is sprawling, such that one planted by itself won't exceed 6" or so in height - but plant it next to taller companions, and it lifts itself to greater heights. It doesn't so much climb as support itself on its neighbors. That's why I have a hard time getting a good whole-plant photo: it's spread out, with its marvellous flowers popping out here and there.
We also established this plant in our Texas garden, and found it to be one of the very few plants that don't mind living in the mulched circles surrounding our front-yard live oaks.

Callirhoe involucrata
For some reason, I'm always tickled by the frumpy, ground-hugging seedlings. They're slow to grow in their first year.
poppy mallow; winecups
Our Texas specimen, blooming earlier here (late April)

In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: houston front yard

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Callirhoe involucrata


Visitors to this page have left the following comments


Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '01 JLH order. Soaked 24hr, baggy 75F (22%G)
  2. Same seed as above. Dehulled seed - more than 50% empty. Nicked/soaked. Baggy 70F (20%G, 4-14d)
  3. Seed from '04 garden. Dehulled. Baggy 70F (30%G, 5-42d) - nicked (7%G, 14d)
  4. Seed from '07 garden. Scissor-snipped husks, thereby crudely scarifying inner seed. Baggy 70F (45%G, 7-21d)
  5. Seed from '08 garden. Scissor-snipped husks. Baggy 70F (35d; 30%G, 8-21d) - dehusked/sandpapered a few - 70F (20%G, 10-22d)
  6. Seed from '09 garden. Sandpapered the husked seeds, during which a few lost their husks. Baggy 70F (27%G, 7-40d)
  7. Same seed as above. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (20%G, 6-46d, with additional scarification).
    Also var. tenuissima from HPS/MAG '13/'14 exchange. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (25%G, 5d)
  8. Same seed as above. Sandpapered, baggy 70F (17%G, 5-21d)
  9. Seed from NARGS '17/'18 exchange. Sandpapered some, baggy 70F (a few G, 7-10d)

Seeds inside the wedge-shaped hulls are dark, kidney-shaped. Removing hulls is a slow, painful task - probably easier to sow an excess, to deal with the low germination rate. Seeds dehusked and scarified do tend to germinate within a few days.


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments