WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This spreading, low-mounding plant reaches 8-inches high with numerous stems and showy yellow flowers, and is gray-hairy throughout. Note the narrow leaves, pointed red-striped buds, and flowers that open during the day and wither by evening. Oenothera genus species with disk-shaped stigmas were formerly placed in the Calylophus genus.

FLOWER: May–August. Flowers funnel-shaped, opening 1–2 inches wide (2.5–5 cm), with 4 crinkled petals, yellow fading pink to purple; buds cone-shaped, red-striped, pointed with tiny with free sepal tips. The stigma is disk-shaped and extends beyond the stamens to prevent self-pollination.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades linear to narrowly lance-shaped, 1/2–2-inches long (12–25 mm), 1/4-inch wide (6 mm); edges entire (no teeth or lobes), surfaces covered with gray, flat-lying hairs.

HABITAT: Dry, sandy, gravelly soils, open areas, hills, roadsides; mixed grass prairie, desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper.

ELEVATION: 4,200–8,575 feet

RANGE: AZ, CO, KS, NE, NM, NV, OK, SD, TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Six species of yellow Oenothera (Calylophus) in NM. The look-alike O. toumeyi, in the western mountains, has clusters of small leaves in the axils. The widespread Yellow Sundrops, O. serrulata, has square buds, shorter petals (less than 1/2 inch), the disk-shaped stigma does not extend beyond the filaments, and leaves usually have tiny teeth. Berlandier’s Sundrops, O. berlandieri, has square buds, the disk-shaped stigma extends well beyond the filaments, and narrow leaves have tiny teeth.

NM COUNTIES: Scattered statewide in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Catron, Chaves, Colfax, De Baca, Eddy, Harding, Lea, Lincoln, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Socorro, Torrance, Union, Valencia.