WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Single to multiple stems reach 18-inches tall with mostly basal leaves; blades fleshy, hairless, oval with a waxy covering and tapered bases that grasp the stem. Note the tiny teeth on the leaves, and the yellow flower heads with tiny bractlets beneath the head.

FLOWER: March–August. Rounded, branching arrays on stem tips with 8–24 flower heads; 8–10 petal-like ray flowers, linear, to 3/8-inch long (10 mm); disk flowers yellow; 13 or 21 phyllaries, even-sized, with green to brownish tips, 3+ bractlets, 1/8-inch long (3 mm) beneath flower head.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate stem leaves. Basal leaves 1 1/2–3 1/2 inches long (4–9 cm) with tapering bases that sheath the stem, blades thickish, oval to lance-shaped, margins wavy with tiny teeth, surfaces hairless with waxy coating. The few stem leaves are greatly reduced in size.

HABITAT: Semi-moist sandy, gravelly loam soils, riparian areas, open woods, canyons, roadsides; pine-oak, Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 4,700–11,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: About 22 species of Senecio in NM. The look-alike Rocky Mt. Groundsel, Packera strepthanthifolia, in NM mountains, has more spoon-shaped leaves with narrow stems (petioles) that don’t sheath the stem.

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