WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Single or clustered, branching stems to 16-inches tall are hairless with a flat-topped cluster of yellow flower heads. Note the foliage is mostly hairless, but woolly hairs occur in the axils of the basal leaves.

FLOWER: May–August. Umbrella-like (umbel) cluster with 3–15 flower heads with 8–13 yellow rays, each 1/4–3/8-inch long (7–10 mm), disk yellow; 13–21 green phyllaries, tips often yellow, red, or purplish.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stems. Blades 1 1/2–4-inches long (4–10 cm), deeply cut along the midrib with 3–6 pairs of angular, tooth-like lobes. Basal leaves have woolly hairs in the axils.

HABITAT: Sandy, rock soils, washes, grasslands, roadsides; desert grassland, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa, Douglas fir-aspen, sub-alpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 5,100–10,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, NM, NV, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Notchleaf Ragwort, P. fendleri, in much the same range, has woolly hairy foliage.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread northern half of NM and the Guadalupe Mts. (Otero Co.) in mid- to high-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Harding, McKinley, Mora, Otero Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, Sandoval, Taos, Union, Valencia.