WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Erect, white stems, 6–40 inches tall and branching from near the base, have rough, sandpapery leaves and showy, light-yellow flowers that don’t open until late afternoon. A dense covering of rough, hooked hairs causes the leaves to cling to clothing, giving the plant one of its common names, Stickleaf. Note the 5 large petals and 5 smaller modified petal-like stamens, and the cluster of long, showy stamens.

FLOWER April–September. The 1–2-inch (25–50 mm) wide flowers have 5 spatula-shaped, creamy, light-yellow, to golden petals interspaced with 5 smaller petal-like modified stamens (staminodia) surrounding a dense cluster of stamens. Flowers bloom from a hairy, cylindrical calyx tube with lance-shaped lobes spreading to 1/2-inch (12 mm) long beneath the bud and petals. The small leaf-like bracts beneath the tube are lance-shaped with margins entire or with several tooth-like points. The fruit dries into a cylindrical, rough, hairy, unridged capsule 3/8–1-inch (10–26 mm) long, topped with 5 spreading spikes and filled with dozens of 1/8-inch (3 mm) long, flat, oval, winged seeds.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate stem leaves present. Blades narrowly elliptic to lance-shaped, to 6-inches (15 cm) long and 1 1/8-inches (3 cm) wide. Margins vary from nearly entire in small leaves to shallow-toothed or lobed along the midrib. Upper leaves have 10–24 lobes, often irregular.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; plains, desert shrub and grasslands, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,400–8,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, NV, OK, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: NM has 17 Mentzelia species, including 5 endemics. In NM this species now includes Dwarf Blazingstar, M. pumila. The annual Yellow Stickleaf, M. reverchonii in the ne plains counties, also with large yellow flowers, but has upper leaves with 8–14 lobes.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide.