WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

The usually single, hairy stems, 4–16-inches tall, have clusters of yellow flower heads. All foliage is densely covered with cobweb-woolly hair, but thinning with age. Note the leaves are evenly lobed or notched along the midrib, and reduced in size up the stem.

FLOWERS: June–September. Flat-topped clusters with 6–25 flower heads on leafy stems, flower head with 6–8 yellow ray flowers each about 1/4-inch long (7 mm), disk florets yellow, 13 phyllaries beneath flower are equal in one row, woolly.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem, lance-shaped. Lower stem leaves with petioles (stems), upper leaves gradually smaller, sessile (no stems), 1–3 1/2-inches long (30–90 mm), woolly; margins cut evenly with lobes to the midrib. Note the basal leaf axils are not woolly.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils of streambanks, forest openings, rocky outcrops, disturbed areas; pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,000–11,800 feet.

RANGE: CO, NM, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Lobeleaf Ragwort, P. mulltilobata, in northern NM, is nearly identical but generally has multiple stems, hairless foliage, basal leaves with woolly hair in the axils, and 8–13 ray flowers. Cutleaf Groundsel, Senecio  eremophilus, in similar habitats, has hairless foliage with even-sized leaves up the stem and basal leaves that wither by blooming. Packera was previously included with Senecio and often still lumped together in keys; about 47 combined species plus subspecies and varieties in NM.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in mid- to high-elevation habitats throughout mountains of NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.