Cryptantha cycloptera

Tucson cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Tucson cryptantha is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada and desert bioregions in gravelly to rocky soils, slopes, and washes at elevations below 1,400 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in small clusters with minute appendages. Growing 10 to 40 centimeters tall with stout, yellow-green stems and occasional branches, it develops sparse, strigose hairs throughout. Its linear to oblanceolate leaves are 1 to 2.5 centimeters long, with hairs often spreading along leaf margins and originating from bulbous bases. The fruit consists of 3 to 4 nutlets with wide marginal wings that are continuous at the tip and base.

Habitat: Gravelly to rocky soils, slopes, washes, often limestone-based, generally creosote-bush scrub, desert woodland, occasionally pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1400 m

Bioregions: s SNH, D

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Inyo, Imperial, Kern, San Diego

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