WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Spreading by rhizomes, this common, understory plant of conifer forests has leafy stems 12–18-inches tall with clusters of flower heads. Note the spatula-shaped to elliptic basal leaves, the leafy bracts beneath the yellow flower heads, and clasping to partially clasping leaves.

FLOWER: July–September. Stems bear spreading clusters of 3–6 flower heads, each 1-inch wide (25 mm) with 12–20 narrow, yellow ray florets not tightly crowded around the yellow disk; hair-like pappus around each floret is bristle-like; phyllaries cupping flower head stacked in 3–4 unequal rows, tips green, pointed, curling back, hairy or not; leaf-like bracts grow beneath flower head.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Blades usually clasping, 2 3/8–6-inches long (6–15 cm), elliptic, tips pointed, margins entire.

HABITAT: Moist to dry sandy, gravelly soils, meadows, open woods, roadsides; ponderosa-oak, Douglas fir, spruce-fir, aspen forests, tundra. 

ELEVATION: 7,000–12,800 feet.

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

SIMILAR SPECIES: Goldenrods, Solidago species, have crowded flower heads, small rays, but not the leafy bracts.

NM COUNTIES: Western 2/3 of NM in mid- to high-elevation, forested habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.