WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Rounded clusters of yellow flowers cover the 1–2-foot tall plant with branching upper stems, usually hairless. Note each flower head has no petal-like rays and 8–17 disk florets, and the leaves are narrow, often with entire margins.

FLOWERS: July–October. Rounded clusters of flower heads with no ray florets and 8–17 disk florets, the outer ones prominently leaning outward; phyllaries flat or rounded, not keeled, tips yellowish coming to an abrupt point.

LEAVES: Alternate, deciduoud, often with small leaflets in axils. Blades narrow, mostly linear, 3/8–2 inches (10–50 mm) long, 1/16–3/16 inch (2–4 mm) wide; margins entire or with shallow teeth, and lined with ciliate and rough hairs.

HABITAT: Favors alkaline and gypsum soils; desert grasslands and scrub, sagebrush plains.

ELEVATION: 3,500–6,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: This is the most widespread of 4, easily confused, species of Isocoma in NM. Rusby’s Jimmyweed, I. rusbyi, in the Four Corners, has 19-25 disk florets per flower head and entire or shallow-toothed leaves. Aztec Jimmyweed, I. azteca, in the Four Corners, has leaves with 3–5 lobes evenly arranged along the midrib. Shrine Jimmyweed, I. tenuisecta, in sw NM, has leaf lobes spreading at right angles to the midrib. The widespread Chamisa, Ericameria nauseosa, has (usually) hairy stems, only 5 disk florets, and keeled phyllaries with tapering points.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy,  Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Union, Valencia.