Cryptantha juniperensis

Rigid cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Rigid cryptantha is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, western San Joaquin Valley, Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, San Jacinto Mountains, western Mojave Desert, and Desert Mountains including the New York Mountains in sandy to gravelly soils and open woodland habitats at elevations of 80 to 2,380 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in small, delicate clusters with corolla limbs 2 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Growing as a narrow, grayish plant 5 to 35 centimeters tall with erect branches that are sparsely covered in rough, spreading hairs, especially near the base. Its leaves are linear to oblanceolate, 0.5 to 3.5 centimeters long, densely covered in fine, appressed hairs with occasionally spreading rough margins. The fruit is a small, lance-ovate nutlet 1.7 to 2.1 millimeters long, densely papillate and coarsely tubercled with a rounded base and tapered tip.

Habitat: Sandy, silty, loamy, to gravelly soils, generally open slopes, often California juniper woodland, foothill woodland, pinyon/juniper woodland, open chaparral, sparse grasslands

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 80-2380 m

Bioregions: s SN, Teh, w SnJV, CW (exc CCo), TR, SnJt, w DMoj, DMtns (New York Mtns)

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Kern, San Benito, Alameda, Santa Barbara, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Ventura, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, Tuolumne, Contra Costa, Monterey, Merced, Imperial, San Diego, Riverside, Tulare, Kings, Fresno

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