WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

With single, branching, 2–5-feet tall stems covered with up to 70 yellow flower heads, this fall-blooming plant can blanket streamsides and moist meadows. Look for prominently winged, hairy stems and lower leaves and all-yellow flower heads.

FLOWERS: August–October. Flower heads on stems (peduncles) 1–4-inches (3–10 cm) long with 8–21, yellow rays, each 3/8–1-inch (10–25 mm) long, fan-shaped, narrow at the base and broad at the tip with 3 lobes; disk yellow and domed.

LEAVES: Alternate. Lower leaves with winged stems (petioles), upper stemless (sessile), blades 1 1/2–6-inches (4–15 cm) long, 3/16–1 1/2-inches (5–40 mm) wide, elliptic to lance-shaped, usually shallowly toothed.

HABITAT: Moist soils, wet meadows, seeps, stream banks, wetlands, riparian areas.

ELEVATION: 4,900–8,100 feet.

RANGE: Widespread across U. S.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The annual Smallhead Sneezeweed, H. microcephalum, in the southern half of NM, has a nearly hairless, winged stem, floral rays only reaching 3/16-inch (2–5 mm) long, and a brown disk.

NM COUNTIES: North-central and southern NM in med- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Guadalupe, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Rio Arriba, Taos.