WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

With up to 25 stems reaching 4–10-inches tall, this plant can be loose, spreading, or form dense rounded mounds covered with delicate dark to light pink or white flowers. Note the flowers have a white center and star-shaped throat, and the foliage is densely glandular-hairy.

FLOWERS: April–September. Clusters with 2–6 flowers, each flower 1–1 1/2 inches (25–38 mm) wide on a short floral tube from a densely glandular-hairy vase-like base (calyx); stamens are barely visible in throat.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades linear to lance-shaped, 1–1 3/4-inches (25–45 mm) long, glandular-hairy, margin entire.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, clay soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, pine-oak transition forests.

ELEVATION: 4,400–8,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: About 13 species of Phlox in NM, most rare or with limited ranges, only 3 widespread at mid elevations. The look-alike Threadleaf  Phlox, P. mesoleuca, in the southern 1/2 of NM, has sparsely glandular-hairy foliage; Longleaf Phlox, P. longifolia, in the western 1/2 of NM, has pink to white flowers with a long floral tube, and narrow leaves to 3 1/3-inches long and bulging, keel-like ridges between the ribs of the vase-like calyx beneath the flower.

NM COUNTIES: Common at low- to mid-elevation dry habitats in southern-half and north-central NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.