Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 18, 2007.

This plant is, according to Weber, "relatively rare", but in the Colorado and San Juan river drainages of the Four Corners area it can actually be quite common, sometimes abundant.  It is easy to spot when it first emerges because it dots the barren-seeming ground with maroon and yellow -- a puzzling sight from a human's vantage point, but once you get down on your knees you see the beauty.

Thomas Nuttall named this genus and this species in 1848.  "Stenogonum" is Greek for "narrow seed", referring to the one-seed fruit; "salsuginosum" is Latin for "of salty places".

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 18, 2007.

Flowers occur in clusters surrounded by two rings of three narrow bracts.  One cluster is just emerging (left center with a bract bent over it), one cluster of seven flowers is at center with one flower fully opened, and  one cluster is tilted to the right with the elongated green/red bracts pointing right.

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 27, 2007.

Nine days after the above photographs, green chlorophyll masks the initial maroons in the leaves and stems; flowers continue to emerge.

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 13, 2007.

Nearly a month after the first basal maroon leaves emerge they turn yellow and die as the plant elongates.  This plant is just two feet from the one twice as tall pictured below.

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 13, 2007.

This plant is about five inches tall and has flowers all along each stem.  The plant will probably grow to more than eight inches tall, flowering as it grows and widening its open, airy posture.