​The Bloom Blog
Blooming this week in the environs of Abiquiú
By Wildflowers of the Southern Rocky Mountains for tips.   

Found in sandy areas, floodplains, saline or alkaline soils
Seen blooming in August near the Rio Chama

Desert Goosefoot has no showy blooms and would disappear into the background but for its height and whitish appearance. It grows to about three feet high covered in a whitish powder. Members of the Goosefoot genus are so called because their leaves are shaped like a goose’s foot but the leaves of Desert Goosefoot are mostly narrow. Lower leaves may have the lobes that give them the goose foot shape but these usually wither as the plant matures. Flowers are tiny and greenish in dense clusters. Leaves and young shoots can be cooked and eaten like spinach. Seed can be ground into a powder and mixed with wheat or other cereals in making bread etc. Source.

If you are trying to identify a different flower then you can check what other flowers bloom this month. If you cannot identify a flower from the website, send a photo and where you took it to contact@rockymountainsflora.com. Read online for tips.   

Found at roadsides and in dry, open areas
Seen blooming in August off Hwy 554

Many yellow flowers bloom towards the end of summer. From a distance they may look similar but get closer and the size of the flowers, the leaves and growth habit will distinguish them. Snakeweed grows like a rounded bush from 12 to 30 inches high with thread-like leaves. This impressive plant is three feet across, probably thanks to all the rain it has received. The flowers are tiny with a few petals, less than 1/4" across, and grow in dense golden clusters. The shape, height and tiny flowers distinguish it. An abundance of Snakeweed is a sign of over-grazing because cattle dislike the taste. In the winter, Snakeweed dies back, leaving brittle stems that make great kindling. The stems were bound together to make brooms and the flowers used to make a dye. Snakeweed was used by Native Americans for a multitude of medicinal purposes, including as a treatment for snakebites, indigestion, bee stings, headaches, diarrhea, painful menstruation, colds, fevers and nosebleeds, and as a laxative for horses. Source.

If you are trying to identify a different flower then you can check what other flowers bloom this month. If you cannot identify a flower from the website, send a photo and where you took it to contact@rockymountainsflora.com. Read online for tips.   

The Bloom Blog
Blooming this week in the environs of Abiquiú
By Wildflowers of the Southern Rocky Mountains

Found on hillsides, by roadsides, in sunny areas
Seen blooming in August near Hwy 554

Another of the sunflowers that seem to flourish in our area, the Prairie Sunflower grows to four feet tall with a hairy stem branching near the top. Leaves are bluish-green, rough in texture and usually lance-shaped, with stalks. The showy flower head is over two inches across and has 7 to 15 petals and a reddish-purple center. The bracts under the flower are lance-shaped and hairy. The Prairie Sunflower is very similar to the Common Sunflower but is much smaller and more slender. Traditionally the seeds were saved and eaten, and sometimes ground as meal. The Hopi used the plant as a spider bite medicine and the Navajo sprinkled a flower infusion on clothing for good luck in hunting. Dried flower petals were mixed with corn meal to make a ceremonial face powder for women. Source.
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If you trying to identify a different flower then you can check what other flowers bloom this month. If you cannot identify a flower from the website send a photo and where you took it to contact@rockymountainsflora.com. Read online for tips.   

The Bloom Blog
Blooming this week in the environs of Abiquiú
By Wildflowers of the Southern Rocky Mountains 

Found in sandy, disturbed soil, roadsides
Seen blooming in late July by Hwy 554

Patches of this bright white Evening Primrose have been blooming since June. It grows to about 18 inches high with many branches and pale stems. Flowers are over one inch across, with four heart-shaped petals, and are pleasantly fragrant. Like all evening primroses, the flowers open near sunset then wilt and turn pink in the heat of the sun the next morning. Traditionally, the plant was used as tobacco, the roots were used to make a poultice or lotion to treat swellings, sore throats, and muscle strains, the fruits and seeds were added to soup or made into gravy. Marriageable Hopi maids used flowers in their hair on holidays. The Zuni High Priest and the Sun Priest of the Corn Maidens gave the blossoms to young girls who chewed the blossoms, ejected the mass into their hands and rubbed it on their neck, breast, arms and hands to ensure that they would dance well so that it would rain and the corn would grow. Source.
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If you are trying to identify a different flower then you can check what other flowers bloom this month. If you cannot identify a flower from the website, send a photo and where you took it to contact@rockymountainsflora.com. Read online for tips.   

Found in moist, open areas, river banks
Seen in July by the Rio Chama

Scouring Rushes are not Rushes; they are Horsetails, which are prehistoric organisms that thrived 400 million years ago during the Paleozoic era. They grow from one to four feet tall with a ridged, hollow, bamboo-like stem. The leaves are reduced to tiny, dark teeth fused into a sheath around the joints of the stem; teeth are usually shed during the growing season. It produces spores, rather than seeds, from flowers in pine cone-like heads. Native Americans had many uses for the plant. The stems were used to do the final polishing of wooden spoons and to polish the soft rock used for pipe bowls, to give medicine to babies and used by children as whistles. It was given to thin, old horses with diarrhea after eating fresh grass in spring. It was used medicinally as a contraceptive; to stimulate the kidneys; to treat bladder ailments, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, venereal diseases, backaches, and colds; also used as an insecticide for washing hair and to treat parts of the body affected by poison ivy. Source.
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If you are trying to identify a different flower then you can check what other flowers bloom this month. If you cannot identify a flower from the website, send a photo and where you took it to contact@rockymountainsflora.com. Read online for tips.