WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This low plant spreads by creeping, reddish runners (stolons) up to 20-inches (50 cm) long which root and bloom at the nodes. Note solitary yellow flowers bloom on the stem tips.

FLOWERS: May-September. Yellow, 5 rounded, slightly notched petals 3/16–3/8-inch (5-10 mm) long; flowers solitary on a stem 2–8 inches long (5-20 cm) from the stolon nodes.

LEAVES: Basal rosette; alternate on stems at stolon nodes. Blades pinnately compound, 3–8-inches (8–20 cm) long; 9–25 large and small leaflets spaced along midrib; margins sharply toothed or lobed; top sides sparsely hairy, underside densely covered with silvery hair.

HABITAT: Moist, boggy soils, streambanks, dry meadows, disturbed areas; ponderosa woodlands, mixed conifer woodlands.

ELEVATION: 5,000-9,800 feet.

RANGE: North America mountains.

SIMILAR SPECIES: About 24 species plus varieties of Potentilla in NM, but no others have red stolons. Woolly Cinquefoil, P. hippiana, throughout mountains of NM, also has pinnate leaflets but has multiple flowers on each stem and no stolons.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains of NM in mid- to high-elevation moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Guadalupe, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.