WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Easy to overlook, except when it grows in mass and blankets broad areas, this low-growing plant with opposite branching, hairy stems seldom reaches 1-foot tall. Note the flower heads with a green, rounded dome of disk flowers and well-separated, tiny, yellow ray flowers with notched tips.

FLOWERS: July–October. Flower heads with 5–10 yellow, petal-like rays, each 1/16–1/8-inch long (2–3 mm), tip notched with 2 teeth; disk flowers yellowish-green.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades linear to lance-shaped, 3/4–2 3/8-inches long (20–60 mm) to 1/2-inch wide (12 mm); surfaces rough-hairy, margins entire with tiny ciliate hairs (use lens). Leaves grow at right angles to slightly upward to stem.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, drainage areas, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,800–7,400 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The tiny, well-separated ray flowers and stiff-hairy, opposite leaves distinguish this member of the Aster family in NM.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread, except eastern plains, in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Los Alamos, McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Valencia.