Single Record

PhotoRecords: YES Matt Langemeier: Alamosa Co, junction of Hwy 150 and Zapata Falls road, 24 Sept 2023

Comments: Allred, et al. (2020) say that in New Mexico, Mentzelia procera is the most common and wide spread of blazingstars, “especially at low elevations.” SEINet bears that statement out, but only when “Mentzelia pumila var. procera” is added to the search. Records of the recently minted species (Schenk and Hufford, 2010) become more scarce in the Rio Grande drainage of northern New Mexico. In the Colorado Watershed the species (as “Mentzelia pumila”) has been vouchered only four times, once in Costilla Co (San Pedro Mesa, 6.5 miles NNE of Garcia and the New Mexico border, 1983), once in Mineral Co (1 miles south of Creede by Hwy 149, 1989), once in Rio Grande Co (10.3 miles south of Monte Vista, 1995), and once in Conejos Co (Vincent Canyon, 2018). Only the last is shown in Ackerfield 2022). There are several recent iNaturalist observations identified as “Mentzelia procera,” in and around the Great Sand Dunes NPP, but only one of them has enough detail for sure determination. That exception was documented by Matt Langemeier, from the Zapata Falls road in Alamosa Co (iNaturalist observation #194980527). The species requires microscopic inspection of the anticlinal walls of the seed coat and measurement of the distance between sinuses of the leaf. So that among the many Mentzelia multiflora vouchers from the Watershed, a number may be Mentzelia procera. BONAP shows M. procera occurring only in Colorado and New Mexico.