rusby’s globemallow

My flora guide sequel is almost done! It will feature 149 species of flowering plants, cactus, trees and shrubs including many you may never have seen before. One uncommon flower I found was Rusby’s Globemallow. (Thanks to Steve Jones for identifying this one for me!) There’s very little information about this one.
(UPDATE: Check out Steve Jones comment regarding the naming of this plant)

Rusby’s Globemallow (Sphaeralcea rusbyi) Flower captured near Tom’s Thumb in Spring of 2009.

In case you were wondering, even with all the additions, the new guide will be only slightly thicker than the first one. That’s because many specimens in the first guide used up two pages. I’ll keep you posted.

2 thoughts on “rusby’s globemallow”

  1. Actually, it was Asa Gray, the grand old man of American systematics, who named the plant Sphaeralcea rusbyi. It’s considered very bad form to name a plant after one’s self. Usually, it’s done to honor the collector, or a colleague. In this case, Asa Gray named the plant after his colleague Henry Hurd Rusby.

    My first systematics instructor, Edwin Smith, told us the (apocryphal) story of a gnat in Africa, named by the man who first discovered it. It was an annoying little beast, so he is reported to have named it Tstetse sonofabitchii.

    I have been unable to confirm the story, but like it anyway.

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