WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Growing from a taproot, this 2-inch tall, 6-inch wide plant hides its beautiful 3/4-inch wide, white to magenta flowers in mountain meadows and forest openings. Note the showy flowers nestled among the long, narrow succulent basal leaves.

FLOWER: Spring, summer. Short, prostrate stems about as long as the leaves bear 2–4 flowers with 5–9 oblong to elliptic petals, pink or occasionally white, 1/2-inch long (12 mm); 2 sepals oval, to 1/4-inch long (6 mm), margins usually have minute glandular teeth along top, a defining but difficult to see feature (use lens).

LEAVES: Basal. Blades fleshy, narrowly linear to lance-shaped, 1–3 1/2-inches long (2.5–9 cm), margins entire.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, clay loam, mountain meadows and open woodlands, wet areas; pinyon-oak, ponderosa, spruce-fir forests, sub-alpine meadows, alpine tundra.

ELEVATION: 7,300–12,400 feet.

RANGE: Rocky Mts. and all states west.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Nevada Bitterroot, L. nevadense, in much the same range as well as the Gila and Sacramento mts., usually has white flowers and sepals without minute glandular teeth.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains in northern half of NM in high-elevation, moist habitats: Cibola, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Taos.