WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Slender prostrate, twining stems to 20-inches long have lavender to pinkish-purple, funnel-shaped flowers. Note the warty sepals cupping the petals, and leaves with narrow, finger-like lobes spreading from a midpoint (palmate).

FLOWERS: August–September. Funnel-shaped flowers 1–1 1/4-inches long (2.5–3 cm) open 3/4–1-inch wide (2–2.5 cm); sepals 3/16–3/8-inch long (5–9 mm), warty especially on midrib.

LEAVES: Alternate. Palmate blades have 5–7 narrow, linear, finger-like lobes 3/8–1 1/4-inch long (1–3 cm).

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils; pinyon-juniper-oak, ponderosa-Douglas fir forests.

ELEVATION: 6,500–8,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 3 species of purple-flowering morning glories, all in so. NM, with warty sepals and palmate leaves with narrow lobes: The rare Purple Morning Glory, I. capillacea, in the southern 1/2 of NM, has erect to ascending stems (not twining) and leaves with 5 segments, each about 5/8-inch long (15 mm). Crestrib Morning Glory, I. costellata, in the southern 1/2 of NM, has twining tips on older stems, small, pinkish-lavender flowers 3/8–1/2-inch long (1–1.2 cm), sepals without warty growths, and leaves with 5–9 narrow, finger-like segments.

NM COUNTIES: In southern mountains (with one record from 1899 in the San Miguel Co.) in mid-elevation habitats: Catron, Cibola, Grant, Lincoln, Otero,  Sierra, Socorro.