Cryptantha microstachys

Tejon cryptantha, Tejon Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Tejon cryptantha is a California native annual herb found in northern coastal Interior Ranges, southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, and southwestern California in open sites, chaparral, and woodland at elevations of 50 to 1,950 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces white flowers with minute appendages in small cymes. Growing 10 to 50 centimeters tall with reddish-brown stems that are strigose and spreading-hairy, it develops a well-formed basal rosette of linear to oblong leaves. Its leaves, 0.5 to 5 centimeters long, are covered in spreading hairs with sparse bristly margins. The fruit consists of smooth, shiny, plump nutlets 1.3 to 1.6 millimeters long with a lanceolate shape and rounded margins.

Habitat: Open sites, chaparral, woodland, burns

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 50-1950 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, s SN, Teh, SnFrB, SCoR, SW (exc ChI)

California counties: Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Ventura, Monterey, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Benito, Orange, Contra Costa, Lake, Tehama, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Joaquin, Merced, Stanislaus, Glenn, Colusa, Napa, Yolo, Alameda, Tuolumne, Trinity, Shasta, Mono, Inyo, Fresno

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