WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This robust plant reaches 6-feet tall with large, broad leaves, yet the reddish-green, tubular flowers are only 3/4-inch long. The blooms may not impress us but bees and other pollinators dive headfirst into the flower’s small opening. Note the stems are glandular hairy and angled.

FLOWERS: June–September. Short-stalked clusters spread along upper stems; flowers an inflated (not constricted) tube, 1/2–3/4-inch long (12–20 mm); tube with 2 erect upper lobes, 2 side lobes and 1 lower lobe bending downward.

LEAVES: Opposite on short stems (petioles). Blades lance-shaped, 3–6-inches long (7.5–15 cm), margins irregularly serrated.

HABITAT: Moist gravel loam soils, meadows, open woods; ponderosa, Douglas fir-aspen, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 6,200–10,500 feet.

RANGE: Endemic to NM mountains.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Lanceleaf Figwort, S. lanceolata, in no. NM mountains, has a 1/2-inch long (12 mm) flower with a constricted tube. The rare Mimbres Figwort, S. macrantha, in sw NM mountains, has bright red flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in mid- to high-elevation habitats in NM mountains:Bernalillo, Catron, Dona Ana, Grant, Harding, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Taos, Torrance.