WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Upright, rigid, branching stems 1–2-feet tall are covered with coarse hairs and showy, white flowers. Note the conspicuous long, white hairs in the throat of the floral tube, the nodding buds, and the leaves evenly divided into narrow lobes along the midrib like teeth on a comb, or points of a crown, as the species name infers.

FLOWER: June–September. Flowers 2-inches in diameter (5 cm), solitary from leaf axils, have 4 showy white, notched petals 3/8–3/4 inch long (1–2 cm); buds nod and end in point without free tips. Fruit is a cylindrical capsule to 3/4-inch long (2 cm).

LEAVES: Basal rosette withers before blooming. Stem leaves alternate, blades 3/4–2 3/4-inches long (2–7 cm), deeply cut into narrow lobes evenly spaced (not crowded) along the midrib and no wider than 2 mm (especially upper leaves).

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, grasslands, slopes, open areas; foothills scrub, ponderosa forest.

ELEVATION: 5,000–9,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, KS, NE, NM , SD, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Flowers of Prairie Evening Primrose, O. albicaulis, and Pale Evening Primrose, O. pallida, do not have hair in the floral throat.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in northern, western, central NM at mid- to high-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, De Baca, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.