Short, matted, white-woolly hairs cover the 1–3-foot tall stems and obscure the surface, and clusters of scarlet flowers grow from the stem tips. Hairy, red bracts with deep lobes surround the pointed, beak-like flowers. Note the mid-stem leaves are mostly entire and the upper leaves usually have 3 lobes.

FLOWER: March–September. A dense, hairy, 1–4-inch (2–10 cm) long spike of showy, entire to 3-lobed red bracts surround small, green, beak-like pointed flowers which extend beyond the red sepal tube (calyx); all parts covered with fine hair.

LEAVES: Alternate, mid-stem leaves mostly entire, upper leaves usually with 3 lobes. Blades narrow, linear, margins rolled inward to form a channel, both surfaces densely woolly.

HABITAT: Gravelly, clay loam soils; desert grasslands and scrub, foothills.

ELEVATION: 4,200–8,800 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Wholeleaf Paintbrush, C. integra, in much the same range in mid- to high-elevation habitats, has unlobed channeled leaves with few hairs on the upper surface.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM deserts in low- to mid-elevation arid habitats: Catron, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Valencia.