Cryptantha ganderi

Gander's cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Gander's cryptantha is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native annual found in western Sonoran Desert (Borrego Valley area) in creosote-bush scrub at elevations of 140 to 250 meters. Flowering from January to May, this plant produces pale yellow flowers less than 2.5 millimeters in diameter with minute appendages. Growing 10 to 40 centimeters tall with spreading branches that are strigose and rough-hairy, it develops a distinctively stout habit with linear to narrow-lanceolate leaves bearing spreading bristles. Its leaves measure 1 to 4 centimeters long, with some bristles having bulbous bases that give the plant a distinctive textured appearance. The fruit consists of 1 or 2 shiny, lanceolate nutlets 2 to 2.5 millimeters long, generally mottled with a rounded margin and long-acuminate tip.

Habitat: Stabilized, +- silty, fine sand deposits, creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Jan-May

Elevation: 140-250 m

Bioregions: w DSon (Borrego Valley area)

California counties: San Diego, Imperial

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