WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Stems to 12-inches tall with rounded clusters of small, white flowers with 4 petals and purplish buds. Note the clasping stem leaves and disk-like, egg-shaped fruit on short pedicels along the stem.

FLOWER: May–August. Rounded to elongated clusters of flowers with 4 white to pinkish, oblong petals, 3/16–1/2-inch long (4.2–13 mm); stamens and style extend outside flower throat; fruit an egg-shaped disk with a pointed base and rounded tip on short, horizontal to descending pedicel.

LEAVES: Basal rosette, blades to 3-inches long (7.3 cm). Stem leaves alternate, clasping; blades oval, to 1 1/4-inch long (2 cm), 3/4-inch wide (19 mm); margins entire (smooth) to toothed, tips rounded to pointed.

HABITAT: Dry to moist sandy to gravelly soils, open woodlands, meadows; foothills, mixed conifer forests, alpine.

ELEVATION: 5,000–13,000  feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM,  NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Two subspecies in NM: subsp. glauca in the northern mountains has the flower cluster well above the stem leaves; subsp. fendleri in the southern half of NM has stem leaves that reach the flower cluster. Heartleaf Bittercress, Cardamine cordifolia, in much of the same range, has heart-shaped leaves and long, slender seed pods. Diamond-leaf Saxifrage, Micranthes rhomboidea, has flowers with 5 petals and no leaves on the stem.

NM COUNTIES: Throughout NM except eastern plains in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Union.