WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Common on mountain meadows and trails, this 1-foot tall densely branching plant with green stems has filament-like leaves and numerous flower heads with yellow, 3-lobed rays and a yellow disk.

FLOWERS: May–October. Each stem has about 5 flower heads with 7–10 yellow, petal-like rays, each 1/4–1/2-inch long (7–11 mm), tipped with 3 rounded lobes; 2 rows of phyllaries under the rays and disk, the inner ones longer with spike-like pointed tips, the outer ones lance-shaped and united for the bottom half.

LEAVES: Basal leaves have tufts of long, white hairs in the axils. Alternate stem leaves sparsely to moderately hairy and gland dotted (use lens); mid-stem blades up to 6-inches (15 cm) long with 3–7 slender segments about 1/16-inch (2 mm) wide.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils, roadsides, open areas; pinyon-juniper to ponderosa, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 5,500–10,700 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: NM has two varieties: Hymenoxys var. richardsonii, in juniper shrublands, has hairy leaves; var. floribunda, in mountains from pinyon-juniper to mixed-conifer forests, has hairless or sparsely hairy leaves. Rusby’s Rubberweed, H. rusbyi (see photo), in the mountains of Catron, Grant, and Socorro counties, is erect with few branching stems, reddish near the bottom. The desert annual Bitterweed, H. odorata, statewide except northern NM high country, in plains and desert scrub habitats, is usually rounded with multiple bushy stems.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide except eastern NM plains counties in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.