Showy, butter-colored flowers cover the 4–8-inch tall, rounded clumps that magically bloom in the driest, rocky hills of NM. Note the bright-yellow rays and protruding orange disk flowers. The colorful, long-lasting flowers make great additions to rock gardens, but are basically impossible to transplant intact from their rocky habitat.

FLOWER: May–October. The 1–1 1/2-inch wide (25–38 mm) flower heads have 3–6 yellow, oval, petal-like ray flowers around a center of protruding orange disk flowers. The flowers create a rounded mass of color.

LEAVES: Opposite to crowded. Blades thin, linear, 1/2–1-inch long (12–25 mm) by 1/8-inch wide (3 mm), with three nerves at the base.

HABITAT: Arid, well-draining sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,200-7,800 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, OK, KS, NM TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Paper Flower, Psilostrophe tagetina, statewide, grows in 4–12-inch tall and wide clumps with woolly-hairy, linear leaves and notched petals with 3 lobes.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide (not reported in Taos Co.) at low- to mid-elevation arid habitats.