WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

 

High mountain ridges and cracks in cliffsides make the perfect habitat for this delicate little flower. Look for slender, leafless, 6-inch tall flowering stems with a one-sided spike-like clusters of tiny red flowers. Basal leaves are rounded with toothed lobes.


FLOWERS: July–September. One sided, nodding in bud, non-branching clusters (racemes) along the upper half of the glandular-hairy stem have 15+ flowers. Note that both the 5 whitish-pink petals and the 5 stamens extend slightly beyond the reddish-pink sepal tube, which has spreading tips and covered with long hairs.


LEAVES: Basal only with stems (petioles) with short, glandular hairs. Blades to 3/4-inch (5–20 mm) long, broadly round with 5 lobes with rounded teeth, upper surface hairless, lower surface with glandular hairs, longer on veins; margins with scattered ciliate hairs.


HABITAT: Limestone cliffs in lower and upper montane coniferous forests of the Sandia and Manzano mts.


ELEVATION: 8,000-10,700 feet.


RANGE: NM, endemic to the Sandia and Manzano mountains.


SIMILAR SPECIES: Two other red- to pink-flowering alumroots in NM: H. rubescens, widespread throughout NM mountains, has stamens longer than the sepals and flowers in a panicle (on little branches from the flowering stem); H. sanguinea, only in the Boothill, Hidalgo County, has deep red flowers and stamens shorter than the sepals.


NM COUNTIES: Only in the Sandia and Manzano mountains in mid-to high-elevation, rocky habitats: Bernalillo, Torrance, Sandoval.

SANDIA  MOUNTAIN  ALUMROOT

HEUCHERA  PULCHELLA

Saxifrage Family, Saxifragaceae

Perennial herb

THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE COPYRIGHTED AND CANNOT BE USED

WITHOUT PERMISSION OF GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

  1. 1.Reddish, hairy sepals (right arrow).

2. Tiny petals and stamens extend beyond sepal tube (left arrow).

Flowers grow on one side of the bloom stalk.

HOME          SCIENTIFIC NAME          FAMILY NAME           SEARCH YELLOW          SEARCH RED          SEARCH BLUE


SEARCH WHITE         SEARCH CACTI         SEARCH LEAFLESS         GLOSSARY

EMAIL ME