WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Numerous cup-shaped, coppery-red to salmon-pink to lavender flowers decorate the 3–6-foot tall, stiff stems of this erect plant. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped with wavy edges and 4–6 times longer than width. Note the star-shaped hairs that cover the foliage throughout, and the hair-like bractlets below the flowers.

FLOWER: May–October. Delicate flowers 3/8–5/8-inch wide (10–15 mm) bloom in the leaf axils with 5 petals and a tower-like column of pistils and stamens; anthers yellow or purple. Note this species has small, almost hair-like, bractlets below the main bracts beneath the flower.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades gray-green, linear to lance-shaped, 1/2–2-inches long (12–50 mm), 4–6 times longer than wide, surfaces hairy and rough; margins wavy with coarse teeth and the blade often folds along the mid-vein. Leaves often have 2 short, pointed tooth-like lobes on each side of the base.

HABITAT: Dry, sandy, rocky soils, roadsides; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,300–7,900 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, KS, MD, NV, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Of the many similar Globemallows difficult to distinguish in the field, the narrow, linear to lance-shaped leaves distinguish this species from those with leaves with an elongate or rounded outline. Spear Globemallow, S. hastulata, is only 1–2-feet tall with 2-inch long, lance-shaped leaves with a pair of lobes or large teeth at the base.

NM COUNTIES: All but far western areas in NM in arid, low- to mid-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Colfax, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Union.