WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Widespread and abundant in mountains throughout NM, this sparsely to densely hairy plant has 8–32-inch tall, erect to sprawling, often reddish stems with small yellow flowers. Note the leaves have leaflets spread like fingers on a hand (palmately compound).

FLOWERS: May–August. Elongated loose cluster with 2–3 flowers, each with 5 petals 1/4-inch long (6 mm), with rounded to notched tips and orangish base, and numerous stamens and pistils; hairy, lance- shaped sepals protrude between the petals.

LEAVES: Mostly basal; alternate on stem. Palmately compound, stems (petioles) 2 3/4–8-inches long (7–20 cm), with 3–7 radiating leaflets 1–2 3/8-inches long (2.5–6 cm), the center leaflet the longest; shallow teeth on the leaflets cut only 1/4 to the midrib. Note the tops are green and the bottoms densely white-woolly.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly-loam soils, roadsides; ponderosa-fir, spruce-fir forests, subalpine and alpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 7,300–11,600 feet.

RANGE: Widespread in the Rocky Mountains and westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Elegant Cinquefoil, P. concinna, mostly above 7,000 feet in NM mountains, is more prostrate with flower stems 2–12-inches tall, mostly basal leaves with 5–7 leaflets radiating from a single point, often folded, white-woolly on bottom, and with shallow teeth around the tips. Rough Cinquefoil, P. norvegica, throughout NM mountains, has three leaflets.

NM COUNTIES: NM mountains in mid- to high-elevation habitats throughout NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel,  Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.