Cryptantha maritima

Guadalupe cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Guadalupe cryptantha is a California native annual found in southern coastal California, Channel Islands, eastern San Bernardino Mountains, eastern Peninsular Ranges, and deserts in sandy to gravelly soils at elevations below 1,250 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces pale yellow flowers with small corolla limbs in delicate cymes. Growing 10 to 30 centimeters tall with erect to ascending red-brown stems covered in strigose and spreading rough hairs, it develops distinctive branching throughout its structure. Its narrow linear to oblanceolate leaves measure 1 to 4 centimeters long, covered in appressed bristly hairs with bulbous bases that give the plant a rough texture. The fruit consists of one or two nutlets, with one smooth, shiny brown nutlet and a potentially smaller grayish nutlet with fine tubercles.

Habitat: Common, widespread. Sandy to gravelly soils

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1250 m.

Bioregions: s SCo (San Diego Co.), ChI, e SnBr, e PR, D

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Inyo, San Diego, Imperial, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kern

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