WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

 

Stems to 12-inches tall with rounded clusters of small, white flowers with 4 petals and purplish buds. Note the clasping stem leaves and disk-like, egg-shaped fruit on short pedicels along the stem.


FLOWER: May–August. Rounded to elongated clusters of flowers with 4 white to pinkish, oblong petals, 3/16–1/2-inch long (4.2–13 mm); stamens and style extend outside flower throat; fruit an egg-shaped disk with a pointed base and rounded tip on short, horizontal to descending pedicel.


LEAVES: Basal rosette, blades to 3-inches long (7.3 cm). Stem leaves alternate, clasping; blades oval, to 1 1/4-inch long (2 cm), 3/4-inch wide (19 mm); margins entire (smooth) to toothed, tips rounded to pointed.


HABITAT: Dry to moist sandy to gravelly soils, open woodlands, meadows; foothills, mixed conifer forests, alpine.


ELEVATION: 5,000–13,000  feet.


RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM,  NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY.


SIMILAR SPECIES: Two subspecies in NM: subsp. glauca in the northern mountains has the flower cluster well above the stem leaves; subsp. fendleri in the southern half of NM has stem leaves that reach the flower cluster. Heartleaf Bittercress, Cardamine cordifolia, in much of the same range, has heart-shaped leaves and long, slender seed pods. Diamond-leaf Saxifrage, Micranthes rhomboidea, has flowers with 5 petals and no leaves on the stem.


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

WILD  CANDYTUFT,  FENDLER’S  PENNYCRESS

NOCCAEA  FENDLERI

Mustard Family, Brassicaceae

Perennial herb

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The flower cluster elongates and forms  fruit disks  (upper arrow) on short, horizontal to upward-pointing pedicels (lower arrow).

Rosette of basal leaves with stems (petioles) and smooth to toothed edges.

Stem leaves clasp the stem.

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