Montane, subalpine. Moist, open woodlands. Summer.
Below Spiller-Helmet Ridge, July 9, 2006.

As the photograph indicates, Moehringia machrophylla grows in loose colonies arising from roots.  Plants grow from two to fifteen inches tall scattered in moist montane forests.  Leaves can have scales and minute hairs and flowers tend to droop from the ends of long pedicels.  Moehringia machrophylla occurs in a few counties of southwest Colorado and northeast New Mexico, but does not occur in Utah or Arizona.  The plants pictured are records for Montezuma County, Colorado.

William Hooker named this plant Arenaria machrophylla in 1830; Eduard Fenzl renamed it in 1833.  Paul Moehring was an 18th century German botanist.

Montane, subalpine. Moist, open woodlands. Summer.
Below Spiller-Helmet Ridge, July 9, 2006.