WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Low compact plant forms dense mats 2–4-inches tall covered with flowers that may be white, pink, lavender, or light yellow. Note the gray-green leaves are only sparsely hairy and have bristle tips.

FLOWER: May–June. Flowers 1/2–3/4-inch across with a floral tube 1/4–3/4-inch long (8–18 mm); 5 spreading petal-like lobes; vase-like calyx beneath the flower is hairy to hairless, the lobes separated by a transparent membrane that is keeled like a boat (use lens).

LEAVES: Opposite, crowded. Blades narrow, linear to 5/8-inch long (8-15 mm), sparsely hairy but not woolly or cobwebby; tips sharply pointed.

HABITAT: Rocky, sandy, silty soils, canyons, riparian soils, roadsides; desert scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,300–7,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, NM, NV, OR, WA.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The nearly identical Spiny Phlox, P. hoodii ssp. canescens, has foliage with cobwebby hair; may not be distinguishable in the field. Other mat-forming phlox grow in high-elevation habitats.

NM COUNTIES: Western NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry or moist habitats: Cibola, Grant, Hidalgo, McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Valencia.