WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

The highly dissected leaves are almost as showy as the yellow flower heads, which have no petal-like ray flowers. The single stem, 12–36-inches tall with many branches and leaves, is topped with a rounded array of 20–100, yellow flower heads. Look for the single stem with numerous fern-like leaves and the rayless flower heads.

FLOWER: May–September. The clusters of flower heads bloom on 3/8–1 3/8-inch long (10–35 mm) branches (peduncles). Each small, compact head has 20–40 tubular disk flowers and no petal-like rays.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. The dense basal rosette of leaves takes two years to produce the single flower stalk. Basal leaves are 2 3/8–6-inches long (5.1–16 cm), 1/2–3-inches wide (1.2–7.5 cm) and divided into 3–15 thin segments, which divide again–note the final segments are only 3/16-inch (1–6 mm) wide; surfaces mostly smooth above, woolly below. Alternate stem leaves get smaller up the stem.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils of plains, foothills, roadsides; prairies, desert grasslands and scrub.

ELEVATION: 3,200–8,200 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, KS, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Another yellow rayless perennial, H. mexicanus, in the western mountains of NM, has simple or once-divided leaves. Fine-leaf Ragweed, H. filifolius, statewide, is a perennial with yellow disk flowers and usually 3+ stems. The biennial Old Plainsman, H. tenuifolius, widespread across NM, has a single stem and whitish disk flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide (not recorded from Colfax, Guadalupe, Taos) in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats.