WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Slender, branching, hairy, reddish-brown stems reach 24-inches tall with clusters of bell-shaped, violet to blue flowers crowded along one side of a bloom stem. Note the stem tip is hooked like a scorpion’s tail, and the stamens are about the same length the petals.

FLOWERS: April–June. Flowers bell-shaped with 5 violet to blue, sometimes white, petals 1/8–3/16-inch long (3–4 mm). The stamens are about the same length as the petals.

LEAVES: Basal; alternate on stem. Blades oval, 3/4–3-inches long (2–8 cm) with stems (petiole) 3/8-2-inches long (1–5 cm); margins scalloped with rounded teeth to lobed. Basal leaf lobes are shallow and cut less that halfway to the midrib.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, slopes, washes; desert grassland and creosote scrub.

ELEVATION: 2,000–5,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, MN, NV, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Cutleaf Scorpionweed, P. crenulata, in western NM, has lower leaves with lobes cut almost to the midrib, and flowers with stamens that extend 1/8–3/8-inches (3–10 mm) beyond the petals.

NM COUNTIES: Southern and western NM in low-elevation, arid habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, McKinley, Otero, Sierra, Socorro.