WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Slender, branching, often clustered, purplish stems 3–13-inches tall (8–35 cm) are topped with spikes of tubular, two-toned flowers with both white and pinkish-purple parts. Plants can form loose colonies in open areas, and are partially parasitic on roots of other plants.

FLOWER: June–September. Elongated, 3/16–5/16-inch long (5–8 mm), irregularly shaped with 2 lips; lower lip is inflated, pouch-like, mostly white; upper lip is beak-like pinkish-purple. Flowers become more purple as they age.

LEAVES: Alternate along stem. Blades 5/8–1 1/4-inches long (1.5–3.5 cm), narrow, linear, entire or with three lobes; surfaces covered with short, glandular hairs.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, clay loam soils, open mesas and wooded slopes, roadsides; grasslands, sagebrush flats, pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa-oak, yellow pine forests.

ELEVATION: 6,500–8,580 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, NV, UT. Endemic to the Colorado Plateau.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The tubular, bicolored flowers and linear, glandular-hairy leaves and stem distinguish this species. The related Yellow Owl-clover, O. leuteus, has yellow flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Western half of NM in mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Grant, Los Alamos, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos.