Local Plants & Flowers

Antelope Horns (Asclepias asperula)

Flowers: fragrant up to 1/2" wide in clusters 3" wide; followed by stout, 6" long, green pod with olive-green and pink streaks. Leaves: Dark green and narrow, with grayish stripe down midvein. Up to 6"

Bluebells (Mertensia franciscana)

Flowers: dark to pale blue, tubular. June to September. Leaves: dark green lanced shaped to 5" long. Flattened hair on upper surface.

Coneflower - Mexican Hat (Ratibida columnaris)

Flowers: heads 1-3" with rays 1/2-3/4" yellow, yellow w/red brown base or red brown w/yellow tip. Flowers grow on long leafless stalks. Leaves: 1-6" pinnately cleft into narrow segments.

Geranium

Flowers: 1" wide; 5 petals about1/2-3/4" stamens 10; Leaves: 1 1/2-5" palmately cleft and divided into 5-7 segments.

 

Fleabane (Erigeron divergens)

Flowers: White, pink or lavender; 1" narrow bracts; Leaves: tufts at base 1/2-1" becoming smaller higher.

Pink Vervain (Verbenia ambrosifolia)

Flowers corolla 1/4-1/2" wide, tublar base 1-1.5 times the length of the calyx which is glandular-hairy; Leaves 1/4-2 1/2"long pinnately divided

 Scarlet Gilia-Skyrocket (Ipomopsis aggregata)

Plant is part of the phlox family and not a gilia.
Flowers corollas 3/4"- 1 1/4" with 5 pointed lobes.
Leaves: 1-2" long, pinnately divided into narrow segments.

Desert Globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua)

Flowers: 1/2-1 1/2"; petals 5 with many stamens; Leaves: 4" wide round with 5-7shallow lobes.

Golden Aster (Chrysopsis villosa)

Flowers 1" yellow around yellow disk. Leaves: lanceolate. 1/2-1 1/4". Stem covered with rough grayish hairs.

Common Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus)

Flowers: corolla 1/2"-1 1/2" often with reddish spots near opening. 2 lobes at top bent upward & 3 lower lobes bent downward. Leaves: 1/2-4", ovate, opposite and edges with sharp teeth.

Western Monkshood (Aconitum columbianum)

Flower  has 5 sepals resembling petals.
Leaves 2-8" wide, palmately lobed and jaggedly toothed.

Nodding Thistle (Carduus nutans)

Flowers  Pink to reddish lavender, rayless, and nodding; flowerhead surrounded by series of spiny-toothed bracts; to 2 1/2" wide. Leaves: Green, deeply lobed, spiny, stalkless, to 8" long.
Native to Europe.

New Mexico Vervain (Verbena macdougalii)

Flowers: spikes with ring of blue-violet symmetrical flowers. Leaves: blades to 4", opposite, toothed, ovate.

Indian Paint Brush-Castilleja linariaefolia Benth

Actually, the flowers of this plant are not attractive but surrounding bracts and the upper leaves are highly colored.

Sticky Aster-(Machaeranthera bigelovii)

Flower heads about 1½" wide. Leaves 2-4" oblong with teeth on edges
 

Snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarotbrae)

Flowers 1/8-1/4" with 3-7 rayflowers and 2-6 tiny disk flowers. Leaves vary from 1/4 to 2 1/2" long very narrow

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Flowers:  Long dense spikelike racemes about 1/2-3/4" broad.
Leaves: elliptic and very hairy. The basil leaves are 4-16" long becoming smaller as they rise.

Blue Flax (Linum perenne)

Flax Family. Flowers: 3/4-1 1/2"wide; petals 5 stamens 5; styles 5 longer than stamens. Leaves are 1/2-1 1/4", narrow with 1 vein. Plant grows to 32"

Checkermallow (Sidalcea neomexicans)

Mallow Family. Flowers: Deep pink in narrow leaning sprays are 1-1 1/2". petals 5, stamens many. Leaves are up to 4" wide and nearly round.

Sticky Cinquefoil (Potentilla glandulosa)

Rose Family. Flowers: 1/2-3/4" 5 pointed calyx lobes with smaller bracts between. 5 petals, 25-40 stamens. Leaves: pinnately compound with 5-9 ovate leaflets. Height to 20"

Western Bistort (Polygonum bistortoides)

Buckwheat Family; Flowers: clusters 1-2" with individual flowers less than 1/4" containing 5 petal-like segments. Leaves are 4"-8" long. Plant grows to 28".

Orange Agoseris (Agoseris aurantiaca)

Sunflower Family; Flowers: 1" with all ray type; Leaves: 2-14" some with large teeth. Grows to 24"

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Sunflower family. Flat cluster of small white flowers at  the top of a a fibrous stem. Flowers: 3-5 roundish white rays 1/8" long with 10-20 disk flowers. Leaves Up to 1 1/2" divided into fine segments.

Canada Violet (Viola canadensis)

Flowers: about 1" white, yellow at the base, 2 upward, 3 lower and 2 at sides. Leaves 1-3", heart shaped.

Rabbitbush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus)

Flowers: 1/4-1/2" slender without rays, bracts oriented in 5 vertical rows. Leaves: 3/4-3"

Penstemon
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Pea family Flowers: 1-1 1/2" Leaves: compound with 3 broad leaflets.

Wild Strawberry

Rose Family  Flowers 3/4", sepals 5, green pointed little bracts between, petals 5, stamens many. Leaves: 3 broad leathery leaflets.

Shrubby Cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa)

Rose family - Small shrub Flowers: 1" petals Leaves: 5  crowded leaflets about 1/2-3/4". Hairy and gray

Lady's Thumb (Polygonum persicaria)

Buckwheat family. Flowers 1/16" in dense spikes
Leaves: Lance shaped to 1"

Shaggy mane, Shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus) Slender Gaillardia (Gaillardia Pinnatifido)

Disk flowers in rounded dome to 1 1/3"
Leaves pinnately lobed to 3"

Cosmos (Cosmos parviflorus)

Flowers: 8 long sepals, with bright yellow disk flowers. Leaves linear very finely divided to 3"

 

Cosmos

Note by photographer Gerald Earl.

Most of these photos were taken in September of 2002 around Escudilla Mountain. The pictures were not taken to be a means of identifying the plants but merely as appreciation of beauty. I have tried to identify  them to the best of my ability and I encourage anyone noticing mistakes on this flower page to contact me at samearl@frontiernet.net

Information  and identification was gleaned primarily from The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers and The Peterson Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers.

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