You’ll stop and take a deep breath when you see this petit beauty. Not just because the 1–4 inch tall, clump-forming plant is covered with rose-pink flowers, but because you’ll probably be gasping above 11,000 feet. Besides possible snow banks and windblown scree fields, note the flowers have a yellow throat and narrow basal leaves. The flowers can densely cover the basal clump, and it often grows in association with other low-growing, cushion plants.

FLOWER: June–August. Flowers 3/4-inch wide (19 mm) on stalks 1-4 inches tall; 5 oblong, notched petals, bright rose-pink (occasionally white), throat yellow.

LEAVES: Basal, clump-forming. Blade linear to narrowly lance-shaped, to 3/4-inch long (17 mm); margins entire or with a few teeth, surfaces hairless. Leaves tend to fold lengthwise.

HABITAT: Moist, gravelly soils; open areas, alpine meadows, ridges, scree slopes; subalpine meadows and alpine tundra near and above timberline.

ELEVATION: 11,200–13,000 feet.

RANGE: CO, NM.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Rusby’s Primrose, P. rusbyi, reaches 4–8 inches tall, has leaves with shallow, evenly spaced teeth, and grows in forests below timberline. Alpine Forget-Me-Not, Eritrichium nanum, is blue with a yellow throat. Pink-colored phlox do not have a yellow center.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains of northern NM near and above timberline: Colfax, Mora, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Taos.