WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

With bushy, hairless stems 2–5-feet tall, this robust plant favors open forests with moist soils and stream banks. Note the clusters of yellow flower heads and the arrow-shaped, toothed leaves evenly spaced and only slightly reduced in size up the stem.

FLOWER: July–September. Flat-topped to rounded clusters of flower heads with 8 yellow rays, 3/8–5/8 inch long (9–15  mm), with notched tips, and a yellow disk. Usually 13 phyllaries, evenly-sized, usually green-tipped.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades narrowly triangular, 1 1/2–4 inches long (4–10 cm) with a broad base and pointed tip; margins strongly saw-toothed.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, gravelly soils, meadows, stream banks, open woodlands; ponderosa pine, mixed conifer, spruce-aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 8,000–11,515 feet.

RANGE: CA, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Tall Ragwort, S. serra, in Rio Arriba Co. in NM, has finely-toothed, lance-shaped leaves with tapered bases.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains of northern NM (and Sierra Co.) in mid- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Colfax, Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Taos.