WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Branching single or multiple stems to 12-inches tall grow from a rosette of deeply-lobed basal leaves. Note the small yellow flowers with 5 petals, and scratchy leaves with hooked hairs that cling to clothes, and club-shaped fruit capsules tipped with tiny, finger-like lobes. Most Mentzelia have whitish stems.

FLOWER: February–July. The 1/2–3/4-inch (12–20 mm) wide flowers have 5 true petals and numerous stamens which do not extend beyond the petals. Flowers bloom atop a hairy, cylindrical calyx tube with lance-shaped lobes beneath the petals. The small leaf-like bracts beneath the tube are lance-shaped with entire margins or with 2 tooth-like points. The fruiting capsules, 3/8–1 1/8-inch (8–28 mm) long, often tapering to base, are covered with long hairs and tipped with 5 spikes (sepals) that stick out like tiny fingers. Tiny seeds have angular facets but not wings (use lens).

LEAVES: Basal rosette persistent, leaves lobed with a prominent white mid-vein. Alternate stem leaves 3/4–4 3/4-inches (2–12 cm) long and linear to triangular with entire margins or tooth-like lobes along the midrib. Rough hairs densely cover the surfaces.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, arroyos, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, foothills, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,000–7000 feet.

RANGE: All states west of the Rockies.

SIMILAR SPECIES: NM has 17 species of stickleaf, including 5 endemics, most yellow and with limited distribution. Prairie Stickleaf, M. oligosperma, in the southern half of NM, has club-shaped (tip slightly enlarged) capsules and oval to triangular leaves with a pointed tip and irregular teeth. Rusby’s Blazingstar, M. rusbyi, in the central, and western mountains, is usually over 30-inches tall and branching in upper half, and has long linear leaves with wavy-lobed margins, white to yellow flowers with 5 petals and 3 petal-like stamens. Note the seed capsules have ridges.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in western half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos.