WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

With slender, hairy, stems 2–5-feet tall and bright yellow flower heads that usually are slightly nodding, this woodland sunflower has leaves with 3–5 strong veins. Note the disk is yellow and 1–2-inches (25–50 mm) diameter.

FLOWERS: June–September. Usually single, slightly nodding flower heads with 13–25 petal-like ray flowers, each 1–1 1/2-inches (25–40 mm) long, tips notched; phyllaries underneath the rays oval to lance-shaped, loose and spreading, margins lined with ciliate hairs.

LEAVES: Basal, stem leaves opposite (mostly), upper sometimes alternate. Largest leaves clustered near bottom of plant, smaller upwards with 3–5 pairs on the stem; blades strongly nerved, elliptic to lance-shaped with pointed tips, 4–12-inches (10–30 cm) long, 3/8–1 1/2-inches (1–4 cm) wide, leathery; margins entire (no teeth), surfaces roughly hairy to smooth.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils; mountain meadows, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-oak, spruce-fir, aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 6,000–11,000 feet.

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

SIMILAR SPECIES: Perry’s Dwarf Sunflower, H. parryi, in pinyon-juniper to spruce-fir forests, is less than 20-inches tall, has 8–14 ray flowers, a yellow disk less than 5/8-inch (15 mm) diameter, and with basal leaves mostly less than 4-inches long.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread throughout NM mountains in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.