Feel the large, soft, velvety basal leaves and you’ll know why it’s nicknamed “cowboy’s toilet paper.” The robust plant sends up a 1–6-foot tall, leafy flower stalk tipped with a dense spike of small yellow flowers. This introduced, naturalized plant is widespread along roadsides and disturbed areas.

FLOWER: April–October. A crowded spike-like cluster of 1/2–1 1/4-inch wide (12–30 mm), yellow flowers with 5 petal-like sepals bloom from the bottom up around the upper end of the stalk.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. A dense rosette of soft, woolly basal leaves, 4–16-inches long, elliptical, and pointed, forms the first year, then the next year the bloom stalk emerges; stem leaves alternate, stemless (sessile), smaller upward.

HABITAT: 4,700–9,500 feet.

ELEVATION: Sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; shortgrass prairie, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir, aspen-spruce forests.

RANGE: Introduced invasive naturalized nationwide.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The large, woolly leaves and tall flower stalk distinguish this invasive Eurasian native that is naturalized nationwide.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread, except eastern plains border counties, in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.