WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

A cluster of 2–3 magenta, pink, or whitish flowers crowns the 1–3-foot tall, slender, greenish, branching stems. The upper stem and flowers are thickly covered with dark, glandular hairs. Note the long, protruding magenta stamens tipped with yellow anthers. Common in the Sandia and Manzano mountains. Leaf shape and flower color vary greatly in this genus of consolidated species.

FLOWER: July–September. The 1/2-inch wide (12 mm) flowers, funnel-shaped, less than 3/8-inch long (1 cm), may be deep red, pink, or white. Each of the 5 united petal-like lobes has 2 rounded notches. The tiny, oval, yellowish-brown seeds have 5 ribs and a hairy surface covered with wart-like tubercles; the seeds protrude in an erect cluster from the center of a tan, flat, star-shaped, papery disk of united bracts.

LEAVES: Opposite, on short stalks (petioles) or sessile (no petiole). Blades vary from linear to lance-shaped 1–4 1/2-inches (2–11 cm) long to 1-inch (2.5 cm) wide, or oval to 2-inches (5 cm) wide; surfaces hairy or not, tips pointed or blunt, margins entire.

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; foothills, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 3,200–10,700 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, KA, MO, NE, NM, NV, OK, UT, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The Flora of North America currently includes former members of 3 genre and 28 species within this single species. 6 other species in NM have flower tubes less than 3/4-inch (2 cm) long. Narrow-leaf Four-O’Clock, M. linearis, statewide, has narrow, linear, 1–3-inch long leaves mostly less than 3/8-inch (1 cm) wide. Umbrellawort, M. glabra, scattered statewide, has stems and seeds without hairs and  linear to oval leaves mostly greater than 3/8-inch (1 cm) wide. Spreading Four-O’Clock, M. oxybaphoides, statewide except se plains, has heart-shaped leaves, sprawling stems, and smooth to weakly ribbed fruit. Mountain Four-O’Clock, M. melanoytrcha, in no. and so. mountains of NM, has erect stems with tapering-triangular leaves and purplish, hairy bracts beneath the petals.

NM  COUNTIES: Widespread throughout NM except eastern plains in low-to high-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Union.