WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Hairy, branching stems to 12–40-inches tall grow from a dense rosette of pinnate leaves; stem tips have clusters of 4–9 yellow flowers on long pedicels. Stem and foliage are bristly hairy. Note the terminal leaflet on the basal leaves has 3 lobes with the middle one by far the largest.

FLOWERS: May–August. Flowers on long pedicels with leaf-like bracts at node, blooms to 1/2-inch wide (12 mm) with 5 yellow, spreading, oval petals, each 1/8–1/4-inch long (3.5–6.5 mm); sepals beneath the flower fold back against the stem (reflexed). Fresh fruit a bristly pin-cushion-like sphere densely packed with red, thread-like styles tipped with yellow hooks.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Basal blades 4–10-inches long (10–25 cm), pinnate with leaflets along midrib; terminal leaflet rounded with 3–5 coarsely-toothed lobes, the middle lobe much larger than adjacent lobes. Stem leaves alternate with 2–3 pointed lobes with serrated margins.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, gravelly soils; ponderosa, Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 6,600–10,200 feet.

RANGE: Rocky Mts. and westward, east through Great Lakes to New England.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The look-alike Yellow Avens, G. aleppicum, has basal leaves with pointed, equal-sized lobes on the terminal leaflet. Alpine Avens, G. rossii, has pinnate basal leaves with numerous alternating large and small lobed leaflets. Macoun’s Buttercup, Ranunculus macounii, has similar flowers and leaves but the fruit is an oval seedhead without thread-like styles.

NM COUNTIES: Northern NM in mid- to high-elevation moist habitats: Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Taos.