Texas Gardening: Texas Native Plant Pictures by color ( Purple ), 1 by bettydee

bettydee wrote:
Callirhoe involucrata, Purple Wine Cup, Purple Poppy-Mallow, Malvaceae Family, Texas native, perennial.

A low sprawling herbaceous plant to 6 - 12 inches tall with trailing stems 18 inches long . The stems are hairy. The palmately divided 5 to 7 lobed leaves are 1 - 2 inches long and 1 - 2-3/8 inches wide. The goblet shaped flowers have 5 reddish-purple petals 1" long and white at the base. The stamen column is whitish or yellowish. Below the petals are 5 bracts, and below the bracts are 3 bract-like structures collectively called the involucel. There are 2 varieties of C. involucrata: C. involucrata var. involucrata (Purple Wine Cup) and C. involucrata var. lineariloba (Pure white or white with reddish-purple streak down the center of each petal) C. involucrata is the only wine cup with involucels in Texas.

The photo shows a Purple Wine Cup flower on the left side of the photo. A Wine Cup bud to the left of the flower shows the 5 bracts that enclose the petals. Below the bracts, the involucel can be seen. A Drummond Phlox flower is shown on the right.