Malacothamnus

Malacothamnus (bushmallow) is a genus of shrubs found throughout much of mainland California and on three of the Channel Islands. Outside of California, Malacothamnus is known from the northern half of Baja California and from a few disjunct locations in Arizona and Nevada. Plants of this genus are most commonly found in early-successional, post-burn plant communities. Malacothamnus are currently thought to be most closely related to the Iliamnas of the US interior and the Phymosias of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

==Taxonomy== Taxonomy in the genus Malacothamnus has been controversial due to overlapping morphological variation and differences in opinion about how to treat that variation. The controversy mostly arose from the many taxa included in the CNPS Rare Plant Ranking system that were not included in some treatments of the genus. The most recent treatment used a combination of morphological and phylogenetic analyses to help clarify taxon boundaries and which taxa should be recognized, though some taxa still need further research. This treatment recognizes 21 species and 29 minimum-ranked taxa.