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New Mexico groundsel

Habit Perennials, biennials, or annuals, 20–50+ cm; fibrous-rooted, taprooted, or ± rhizomatous (bases branched, horizontal or ascending to erect).
Stems

1 or 2–5+, clustered, lanate- or arachno-tomentose or glabrescent.

Basal leaves

(often abaxially cyanic) petiolate (petioles hairy to glabrate);

blades ovate to lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 20–60+ × 10–30+ mm, bases abruptly contracted to tapering, margins subentire or denticulate to subserrate (abaxial faces usually tomentose, adaxials frequently glabrate).

Cauline leaves

gradually or abruptly reduced (proximal petiolate, similar to basals; mids and distals sessile, lanceolate, entire).

Peduncles

conspicuously bracteate, usually hairy.

Ray florets

(5–)8 or 13;

corolla laminae 4–10 mm.

Disc florets

40–60+;

corolla tubes 1.5–2.5 mm, limbs 3.5–4.5 mm.

Phyllaries

13 or 21, green or yellowish, 4–7+ mm, tomentose to glabrescent.

Calyculi

conspicuous.

Heads

3–20+ in open or compact, corymbiform to subumbelliform arrays (subtended by smaller arrays arising from leaf axils).

Cypselae

1.5–2.5 mm, usually hirtellous on ribs, sometimes glabrous;

pappi 5–6+ mm.

2n

= 44, 46, 92.

Packera neomexicana

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; NM; UT; w Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Plants loosely tomentose or glabrate; basal leaves: blades narrowly lanceolate, margins subentire or irregularly dentate
var. mutabilis
1. Plants usually densely lanate or woolly tomentose, seldom glabrate; basal leaves: blades ovate or broadly lanceolate, margins dentate to deeply dentate or dissected
→ 2
2. Plants taprooted; cauline leaves conspicuous
var. neomexicana
2. Plants rhizomatous or fibrous-rooted; cauline leaves inconspicuous (bractlike)
var. toumeyi
Source FNA vol. 20, p. 593.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Senecioneae > Packera
Sibling taxa
P. anonyma, P. antennariifolia, P. aurea, P. bernardina, P. bolanderi, P. breweri, P. cana, P. cardamine, P. castoreus, P. clevelandii, P. contermina, P. crocata, P. cymbalaria, P. cynthioides, P. debilis, P. dimorphophylla, P. eurycephala, P. fendleri, P. flettii, P. franciscana, P. ganderi, P. glabella, P. greenei, P. hartiana, P. hesperia, P. hyperborealis, P. indecora, P. ionophylla, P. layneae, P. macounii, P. malmstenii, P. millefolium, P. millelobata, P. multilobata, P. musiniensis, P. obovata, P. ogotorukensis, P. pauciflora, P. paupercula, P. plattensis, P. porteri, P. pseudaurea, P. quercetorum, P. sanguisorboides, P. schweinitziana, P. spellenbergii, P. streptanthifolia, P. subnuda, P. tampicana, P. texensis, P. tomentosa, P. tridenticulata, P. werneriifolia
Subordinate taxa
P. neomexicana var. mutabilis, P. neomexicana var. neomexicana, P. neomexicana var. toumeyi
Synonyms Senecio neomexicanus
Name authority (A. Gray) W. A. Weber & Á. Löve: Phytologia 49: 47. (1981)
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