Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 3, 2010.

This species is far less common than the next in the low elevations of the Four Corners area, but it is stands out more and is more easily identified.  It has slender, wiry, red stems; minute yellow flowers at the end of a flexed peduncle (stem of a cluster of flowers); and prominent thick, large, round basal leaves.  

Marcus Jones names this plant Eriogonum flexum in 1891 from a collection he made in Arizona.  James Reveal and J. T. Howell renamed it Stenogonum flexum in 1976.

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 3, 2010.

The flex is clearly evident in almost all  peduncles.

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 species in 1848. "Salsuginosum" is Latin for "of salty places".

Click for more Stenogonum.

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.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Stenogonum salsuginosum