WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Densely silky-hairy, often reddish, stems reach 20-inches tall and branch with open clusters of small yellow flowers. Note the leaflets are pinnate along the leaf midrib, have shallow teeth, and green to gray hairy tops and densely white-woolly hairy undersides.

FLOWERS: June–September. Open cluster of yellow flowers with 5 petals, each to 1/4-inch long (6 mm) with rounded tips, and slightly orange-tinted base; numerous stamens and pistils.

LEAVES: Mostly basal; alternate and smaller up stem. Blades pinnately compound with 5–13 leaflets along a midrib, each leaflet 1/2–1 1/2-inches long (12–40 mm) getting larger toward the tip of the blade; margins lined with shallow teeth; bottom surface densely silky-hairy white.

HABITAT: Gravel-loam soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; subalpine meadows, ponderosa, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 7,400–11,500 feet.

RANGE: Widespread through Rocky Mountain states and westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 5 species of cinquefoil in NM with pinnate leaves and leaflets with silvery-gray hairy bottoms, 3 widespread in similar mountain habitats. Silverleaf Cinquefoil, P. anserine, produces red stolons and 1 flower per stem; Pennsylvania Cinquefoil, P. pensylvanica, has 5–11 leaflets cut at least 1/2 way to the midrib.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread at mid to high elevations in mountains of NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Colfax, Grant, McKinley, Mora, Los Alamos, Lincoln, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.