WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Erect stems 2–13-inches tall (5–33 cm), hairy or hairless, have a leafy rosette of rounded leaves but only a few slender, linear stem leaves around the flower cluster. Note the yellow petals around a green cone-shaped style and numerous yellow anthers.

FLOWERS: April–September. A loose cluster of 3/8–3/4-inch wide (10–20 mm) flowers with 5–10  yellow, oval petals; 5 sepals underneath the flower are hairy or hairless and 1/8–3/16-inch long (3–5 mm).

LEAVES: Basal blades oval to rounded, 3/8–1 1/2-inches long and wide (10–37 mm), on stems (petioles) to 2-inches long (25 mm), leaves a mix of undivided blades and fan-shaped blades with 2–3 lobes. Upper stem blades alternate with 3–5 narrow, linear to lance-shaped lobes.

HABITAT: Gravelly loam, shady, moist soils; Gambel’s oak, ponderosa, Douglas fir-aspen forests, subalpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 7,000–12,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Heart-leaf Buttercup, R. cardiophyllus, in much the same habitat and range, has undivided, heart-shaped basal leaves and 5–10 petals. Macoun’s Buttercup, R. macounii, widespread in NM, has 5 petals, basal leaves with 3 leaflets, and grows in wet soil or shallow water.

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