Cryptantha gracilis

Slender cryptantha, Slender Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Slender cryptantha is a California native annual found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and eastern Mojave Desert in sandy to rocky soils, dry slopes, mixed desert scrub, Joshua-tree woodland, and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 730 to 2,400 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces small white flowers with yellow appendages in dense cymes up to 2 centimeters wide. Growing with slender erect stems 10 to 35 centimeters tall, the plant has spreading rough-hairy branches that are decumbent to erect. Its leaves are 1 to 3.5 centimeters long, linear to narrow-oblanceolate, and densely covered with bristly hairs. The fruit consists of smooth, shiny, lance-ovate nutlets 1.7 to 2.1 millimeters long, typically with a single well-developed nutlet per flower.

Habitat: Sandy to rocky soils, dry slopes, mixed desert scrub, Joshua-tree woodland, and pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 730-2400 m

Bioregions: SNE, e DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Mono, Riverside, Lassen

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