WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Erect to open-branching plants 4–24-inches tall are covered with light blue, trumpet-shaped flowers, occasionally dark blue or white. Stems are usually hairless. Note the long floral tubes. Long-tongued moths pollinate the flowers at night. Also called Long-flowered Trumpet Gilia

FLOWERS: May–September. Flowers bloom in open arrays on branch tips solitary or in pairs, trumpet-shaped with a 1–2-inch long (25–50 mm) tube, spreading open with 5 point-tipped lobes; 5 stamens, often extend slightly beyond the throat of the floral tube. Fruit a capsule 1/4–5/8-inch long (7–15 mm).

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades 3/4–2-inches (2–5 cm) long with 5–7  thread-like, linear segments along the midrib.

HABITAT: Gravelly, sandy soils of roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,800–7,400 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 3 subspecies in NM with minor seed capsule and flower branching differences. Another Ipomopsis with a long flower tube, El Paso Skyrocket, I. thurberi, in the Boothill of NM, has stems with short hairs. Many-flowered Ipomopsis, I. multiflora, in the western half of NM, is blue with short floral tubes, 3/16–5/8-inch (5–15 mm) long, in dense clusters, and hairy stems.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide except ne corner (not recorded in Colfax, Harding, Mora, Union cos.) in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats.