WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Clusters of pink to purple flowers (rarely white) can cover this low, sprawling groundcover that reaches 4–24-inches tall; numerous 4-angled stems with stiff hairs branch from the base. Note the floral tube extends noticeably beyond the hairy sepals, and the hairs covering the plant are not tipped with glands. This species was formerly named Verbena bipinnatifida.

FLOWER: March–October. Rounded clusters are crowded with 1/2-inch long (12 mm )and 3/8-inch wide (10 mm) tubular flowers, each with 5 purple petals with deep, rounded notches, especially the bottom-middle one.

LEAVES: Opposite. Hairy leaf blades reach 1–2 1/2-inches long (2.5–6.4 cm) and wide and are divided into narrow lobes which are divided again into narrow, pointed lobes. Considerable variation within the species exists between leaf segments and hairs.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, clay soils, hills, drainages, roadsides, disturbed areas; prairie, desert grassland and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,650–8,500 feet.

RANGE: Widespread west of Mississippi River, east of Rockies, and throughout Southwest.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Pink Vervain, G. pumila, in Eddy, Lea counties, has oval, lobed leaf blades 3/4–1 1/4-inches long (20–30 mm), and 1/4-inch wide ( 6 mm) flowers with floral tubes that extend only slightly beyond than the sepal tips, and foliage covered with glandular hairs.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide in low- to mid-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Union, Valencia.