WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

From a deep taproot, multiple stems, 2–5-feet tall with numerous branches, can be covered with dozens of yellow flower heads without petal-like rays. The stems and basal rosette of leaves vary from densely white-woolly to nearly hairless. Note: usually 3+ stems from the root stock, rayless yellow flowers, and leaves twice divided into thin segments.

FLOWERS: May–August. Flower heads have a compact disk to 3/8-inch diameter (15 mm) with 10–50 yellow, tubular disk flowers and no ray flowers.

LEAVES: Basal rosette leaves 1–8-inches (3–20 cm) long, divided twice into narrow, linear segments ultimately less than 1/16-inch (1.5 mm) wide; alternate stem leaves few, widely scattered along branches, greatly reduced up the stem.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, limestone, igneous, gypsum, disturbed soils; desert scrub, pinyon-juniper to ponderosa-oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,700–8,500 feet.

RANGE: Widespread west of the Rocky Mountains.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Perennials in this genus usually have multiple stems from the root crown while biennials have only one main stem with many branches. The look-alike Yellow Woolly-White, H. flavescens, has a single, branching stem with numerous leaves and 20–200 flower heads. Indian Tea, Thelesperma megapotamicum, widespread statewide, has nubby outer phyllaries that radiate at the base of the flower head.

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