WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Often in clusters, stems 4–20-inches (10–50 cm) tall have clusters of creamy-white flowers with a distinct curved beak and a broad 3-lobed lower lip. The stems and finely-toothed leaves often turn a striking deep red. All foliage is hairless.

FLOWERS: June–September. Loose, spike-like clusters with flowers on the upper stem and interspaced with leaf-like bracts; flowers 3/8–5/8-inch long (10–15 mm), creamy-white with an upper hooded lip arching down and forming thin, curved tube or beak that often rests on the 3 broad, spreading lobes of the lower lip.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades lance-shaped, 1 1/2–4-inches long (4–10 cm), margins lined with fine saw-teeth.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loamy soils, meadows, forest openings; spruce-fir-aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 8,500–13,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 10 louseworts in NM.  Fern-leaf Lousewort, P. bracteosa, in northern mountains, is 3-feet tall with fern-like leaves and yellow flowers without red lines. Giant Lousewort, P. procera, at mid to high elevations, has fern-like leaves and reddish flowers with red lines and reaches 4-feet tall.

NM COUNTIES: High-elevation habitats in mountains of northern and western NM: Catron, Colfax, Mora, Sandoval, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Taos.