WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

 

With up to 25 stems reaching 4–10-inches tall, this plant can be loose, spreading, or form dense rounded mounds covered with delicate dark to light pink or white flowers. Note the flowers have a white center and star-shaped throat, and the foliage is densely glandular-hairy.


FLOWERS: April–September. Clusters with 2–6 flowers, each flower 1–1 1/2 inches (25–38 mm) wide on a short floral tube from a densely glandular-hairy vase-like base (calyx); stamens are barely visible in throat.


LEAVES: Opposite. Blades linear to lance-shaped, 1–1 3/4-inches (25–45 mm) long, glandular-hairy, margin entire.


HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, clay soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, pine-oak transition forests.


ELEVATION: 4,400–8,000 feet.


RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.


SIMILAR SPECIES: About 13 species of Phlox in NM, most rare or with limited ranges, only 3 widespread at mid elevations. The look-alike Threadleaf  Phlox, P. mesoleuca, in the southern 1/2 of NM, has sparsely glandular-hairy foliage; Longleaf Phlox, P. longifolia, in the western 1/2 of NM, has pink to white flowers with a long floral tube, and narrow leaves to 3 1/3-inches long and bulging, keel-like ridges between the ribs of the vase-like calyx beneath the flower.


NM COUNTIES: Common at low- to mid-elevation dry habitats in southern-half and north-central NM: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.

SANTA  FE  PHLOX

PHLOX  NANA

Phlox Family, Polemoniaceae

Perennial herb

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• Glandular hairs densely cover the stem, leaves and the vase-like calyx beneath the petals.

• The membrane between the calyx lobes is flat, not bulging, keel-like (arrow).

Glandular hairs densely cover the stem, and leaves (arrow).

Santa Fe Phlox often  forms rounded mounds.

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