Cryptantha milobakeri

Milo baker's cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Milo baker's cryptantha is a California native annual found in northwestern California (excluding North Coast), the Cascade Range, and northern Sierra Nevada (Butte County) in rocky or gravelly soils of open conifer forest and chaparral at elevations of 120 to 1,750 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white or yellow-white flowers in small clusters. Growing with branching stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall, it features dense, rough hairs that cover both stems and leaves. Its narrow linear-oblong leaves, 0.5 to 3 centimeters long, are covered in ascending, bristly hairs that give the plant a distinctively textured appearance. The fruit consists of small, dark brown, lance-ovate nutlets with a shiny surface, typically 1.5 to 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Rocky or gravelly, generally non-serpentine soils, generally open conifer forest, chaparral

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 120-1750 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCo), CaR, n SNH (Butte Co.)

California counties: Sierra, Siskiyou, Mendocino, Trinity, Lake, Tehama, Plumas, Butte, Del Norte, El Dorado, Shasta, Amador, Glenn, Colusa, Humboldt, Sonoma, Modoc

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