Cryptantha clokeyi

Clokey's cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Clokey's cryptantha is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native annual found in northwestern Mojave Desert and northern Desert Mountains in rocky to gravelly slopes, desert woodland, and chaparral at elevations of 1,050 to 1,650 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces small white flowers with delicate, minute corolla appendages. Growing 8 to 20 centimeters tall with stout branches, it has strigose stems covered in rough, spreading hairs. Its leaves are 0.5 to 3 centimeters long, oblong to lance-linear, with rough hairs and sunken midveins, becoming smaller toward the stem's top. The plant produces 3 or 4 glossy, brown to mottled nutlets with sharp, white-translucent tips that are distinctively sharp-tubercled.

Habitat: Rocky to gravelly slopes, ridge crests, granite, rhyolite, or schist, desert woodland, chaparral

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: (850)1050-1650+ m

Bioregions: nw DMoj, n DMtns.

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.