Desert five-spot is a flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 in the family Malvaceae

Malvaceae

Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. Well known members of this family include okra, jute and cacao...

, native to the Mojave Desert

Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...

 in the southwestern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where it is found between 50 and 1,500 m altitude in open places, sandy and rocky areas, and in washes. It can be found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a state park located within the Colorado Desert of Southern California. The park takes its name from 18th century, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, the Spanish word for bighorn sheep...

 and in Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...

 in southern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

It is an annual plant

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 growing to 8–60 cm tall, with rounded leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 1.5–6 cm broad with a toothed margin. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are rose-pink to lilac with five petals, each with a dark red spot at the base.