WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Populations of these showy plants with robust 1–3-feet tall stems with numerous branches tipped with golden flowers, can turn a barren field into waves of color, when rain is plentiful. Note the lance-shaped, tapering phyllaries with no ciliate hairs on the margins, yellow rays, and brown disk with a whitish “eye” in the center before the florets fully open.

FLOWER: May–October. The 2–3-inch wide flower heads grow on 1 1/2–6-inch (4–15 cm) long stalks (peduncles) and have 10–30 yellow, petal-like ray flowers, each 5/8–1-inch (15–20 mm) long. The reddish-purple disk is 3/8–1-inch (10–25 mm) diameter and often with a white spot of hairs in the center when developing. The phyllaries beneath the flower head are lance-shaped (not oval), tapering to a point, and covered with rough hairs but not ciliate hairs.

LEAVES: Mostly alternate on petioles (stems) 3/8–1 1/2-inches (1–4 cm) long, lower leaves with longer petioles; blades lance-shaped to triangular are 1 1/2–6 inches (4–15 cm) long and 3/8–3-inches (1–8 cm) wide with wedge-shaped bases, pointed to rounded tips, and entire to serrated margins. Leaves vary from gray-green and densely hairy to green with short hair.

HABITAT: Sandy soils roadsides, disturbed areas; plains and prairie grasslands, desert scrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,800–7,800 feet.

RANGE: Widespread in plains and prairies west of the Mississippi River.

SIMILAR SPECIES: H. petiolaris var. canescens has a dense covering of white hairs on the leaves and stem; var. petiolaris and var. fallax vary slightly but have no hairs or only short hairs on the leaves and stem. Common Sunflower, H. annuus, statewide, has heart-shaped leaves and oval, not lance-shaped phyllaries under the flower head. The perennial Stiff Sunflower, H. pauciflorus, north to south through central NM, has opposite leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide in low- to mid-elevations.