Cryptantha intermedia var. intermedia

Common cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Common cryptantha is a California native annual herb found in northwestern California (excluding North Coast), western Sierra Nevada, Sutter Buttes, central western California, and southwestern California in sandy to gravelly habitats including grasslands, chaparral, and foothill woodlands at elevations below 2,300 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces small white flowers with a corolla limb 3 to 11 millimeters in diameter. Growing with several slender, laxly ascending branches covered in fine appressed hairs and spreading bristles, it reaches heights typical of annual wildflowers. Its leaves and stems are characterized by a mixture of fine appressed hairs and spreading bristly texture, creating a distinctive rough appearance. The fruit consists of 3 to 4 small nutlets, each 1.4 to 2.1 millimeters long, with a gray-brown surface often marked with mottled patterns.

Habitat: Sandy to gravelly flats, slopes, generally granitic or serpentine-based, grassland, chaparral, foothill woodland, occasionally open conifer forest

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 2300 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCo), SN (w slope), ScV (Sutter Buttes), CW (exc CCo), SW (common)

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