Gossypium thurberi  Wild Cotton
SHRUB.  A medium-sized shrub with multiple thin, smooth, light brown canes or trunks.  Leaves smooth, bright green, with five long-pointed lobes and prominent veins.  Showy flowers are creamy white, cup-shaped, with a pink spot at the base of each petal.  Fruit is a brown capsule, about 1 cm, that split open to reveal the seeds and sometimes a few sparse cottony fibers.  May grow a few leaves in spring but is primarily a monsoon plant, blooming in July-August.  In the Empires, semi-riparian, common in small shady canyons and sometimes forming thickets on gravel bars in large washes.
FAMILY:  Malvaceae (Mallow Family)