Montane. Openings. Summer.
Wildcat Trail, August 15, 2007.

Hymenopappus newberryi enjoys open, sunny hillsides, even, as in this case, hot, south-facing hillsides.  H. newberryi typically grows at the bottom of these hillsides so it does get moisture draining from high up.  Plants grow from eight to twenty-four inches tall with a basal rosette of leaves about five inches high and ten inches in diameter.  One-to-five stem leaves are short and as finely cut as the basal leaves.  (One stem leaf is visible on the right side of the main tan stem at the nine inch mark of the ruler .)  The finely cut leaves are similar to those of its cousin Hymenopappus filifolius.  Hymenopappus newberryi occurs only in few counties of  Colorado and New Mexico.

Asa Gray named this species Leucampyx newberryi  in 1874 and M. Johnston renamed it Hymenopappus newberryi in 1923. "Hymenopappus" refers to the membranous pappus.  (In the Asteraceae, pappus are small scales, bristles, or hairs at the apex of the seed).  John Strong Newberry (1822-1892) was an American physician, Professor, geologist, paleontologist, and botanist.  (More biographical information.)

Montane. Openings. Summer.
Wildcat Trail, August 15, 2007.

Montane. Openings. Summer.
Wildcat Trail, August 15, 2007.

Montane. Openings. Summer.
Wildcat Trail, August 15, 2007.

Phyllaries are broad, in a single row, and hairy.

Montane. Openings. Summer.
Wildcat Trail, August 15, 2007.

In Asteraceae, the "pappus" is the modified calyx, made of hairs, bristles, or scales that are attached at the apex of the achene (the sunflower seed).  In the Hymenopappus genus the pappus usually consists of short, membrane-like scales.   Hymenopappus newberryi can have no pappus  (as in this photograph) or it can have a minute pappus of .01-.1 millimeters.

The photograph shows two complete disk flowers, the left one fully open, and the right one in bud.  Each of the flowers, including the seed, is about five millimeters.  The pappus would be attached at the top of the white portion which is the achene, the seed.  

The tiny, glistening dots visible especially at the bottom of the right bud where it is constricted are minute glandular hairs.  

The pink background is my finger.