WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Erect (not vining), hairy stems reach 2-feet tall with nodding, urn-shaped, hairy, violet-blue flowers. Note the narrow leaflets less than 5/8-inch wide (1.5 cm).

FLOWER: May–June. Nodding, bell- to urn-shaped, 1–1 3/4-inches (2.5–4.5 cm) long; petal-like sepals thick, dark violet-blue, densely hairy, with pointed tips curled back exposing whitish-yellow stamens; seed head a spherical cluster with silky tails.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades compound with linear to lance-shaped lobed leaflets, 3/4–2 3/8-inches long (2–6 cm), less than 3/8-inch wide (1.5 cm), deeply cut with 2+ lobes, surfaces hairy.

HABITAT: Sandy, clay, loam soils, slopes, roadsides; pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-scrub oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 6,300–9,200 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 7 species of Clematis in NM,  3 with reddish-purple leatherflowers. Leatherflower, C. bigelovii, in similar habitats, is erect to sprawling with sparsely hairy flowers and leaflets greater than 5/8-inch wide (1.5 cm). Purple Leatherflower, C. pitcherii, has vining stems (not erect or sprawling) that can reach 12-feet long.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread across NM in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.