WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Bright yellow flowers and gray-hairy stems make this 1–2 foot tall plant colorful from spring through summer. Note the leaves have long, lance-shaped, paired leaflets joined at the base.

FLOWER: April–September with spring and summer rains. Clusters of 2–5 blooms grow in leaf axils and ends of branches; flowers 3/4–1 1/8-inches wide (1–3 cm) with 5 yellow, crinkly petals; 5 unequal stamens straw-colored to brownish; pods cylindrical and straight.

LEAVES: Alternate with 1-inch long (25 mm) stems (petioles). Blades have twin, lance-shaped leaflets 1 1/4–2 3/8-inches long (3–6 cm) and 1/2-inch wide (12 mm), joined at the base.

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

ELEVATION: 3,300–5,700 feet.

RANGE: NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Twin-leaf Senna, S. bauhinioides, in so. NM, has twin oval (not lance-shaped) leaflets.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM in low-elevation, dry habitats: Chaves, De Baca, Eddy, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Otero, Quay, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Sierra, Socorro.