WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Creamy, yellowish-green flowers cover this low, spreading plant. Sand often adheres to the sticky, hairy leaves and stems. Flower petals with white centers and yellow spots, or eyes, near the base provide the common name. Note the sticky, unbranched hairs that cover the leaves. Chamaesaracha species share the common names Five Eyes and False Nightshade.

FLOWERS: April–September. Yellowish-green to cream-colored with 5 fused lobes with pointed tips, 3/4–1 1/2 inches (2–4 cm) wide; dark yellow spots near the base of each petal form a star-shaped pattern around a white center. Fruit is a yellow, round berry 1/8–1/3 inch (5–8 mm) diameter enclosed in a papery sheath. The similar-looking fruit of many members the Solanaceae family are poisonous.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades lance-shaped to oblong, 1–4 inches (3–10 cm) long; margins, wavy, wrinkled, entire to moderately lobed; surfaces densely covered with short, unbranched glandular (sticky) hairs (use 10x lens).

HABITAT: Sandy, clay, gravelly soils, washes, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, foothills, pinion-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,000–7,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 5 species in NM with look-alike flowers. Gray False Nightshade, C. coniodes, has leaves with numerous irregular lobes and unbranched hairs without sticky glands, and 1/2-inch wide flowers with yellow bands through the petals. Greenleaf False Nightshade, C. coronopus, has narrow, linear to lance-shaped leaves sparsely covered with branched but not sticky hairs (use lens).

NM COUNTIES: Southern half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats in Bernalillo, Chaves, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Luna, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Otero, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro.