WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Reaching 15–40-inches tall with branching, leafy, often reddish, stems, this plant is common in mountain meadows. Note the clusters of showy, yellow flowers, and the deeply-cut leaves with oval to lance-shaped lobes along the midrib. The foliage is hairless and the basal leaves wither by blooming.

FLOWERS: July–September. Large terminal arrays with 10–60 flower heads; each head has 8 narrow, yellow, petal-like ray flowers, a yellow disk, and 13 black-tipped phyllaries. Var. kingii has small but conspicuous bracklets (1/2 phyllary length) beneath the flower head; var. mcdougalii does not.

LEAVES: Alternate, mostly along stem, even-sized upward. Blades lance-shaped to oval, 2 3/8–4 3/4-inches long (6–12 cm), by 5/8–2-inches wide (1.5–5 cm), margins with irregularly-shaped pinnate lobes incised to the midrib (pinnately compound).

HABITAT: Sandy, rocky soils, streambeds, meadows, disturbed areas; ponderosa-oak, Douglas fir-aspen, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 6,500–9,800 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, ND, NM, UT, SD, WY; Canada.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Notchleaf Groundsel, Packera fendleri, in similar habitats, is hairy with leaves reduced upward and with evenly-sized lobes along the midrib (pinnately compound).

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