Cryptantha oxygona

Sharp-nut cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Sharp-nut cryptantha is a California native annual found in central and southern California mountain ranges, including the Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, San Joaquin Valley, and Mojave Desert, in open gravelly sites and woodland areas at elevations of 200 to 2,450 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces small yellow-centered white flowers with prominent yellow appendages, typically 4 to 9 millimeters in diameter. Growing with slender stems 10 to 45 centimeters tall, it has distinctive strigose branches with bulbous-based hairs that create a rough texture. Its leaves are narrow, measuring 0.5 to 3 centimeters long, with fine appressed to ascending hairs and an oblanceolate to linear shape. The fruit consists of four shiny, gray or mottled nutlets with white tubercles, each about 2 millimeters long and featuring a flat narrow wing that is wider near the tip.

Habitat: Open, gravelly sites, slopes, washes, generally foothill woodland to pinyon/juniper woodland or sparse conifer forest, occasionally desert

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: 200-2450 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNF, SNH (e slope), Teh, SnJV, SCoRI, SW (exc ChI), n SNE, w DMoj

California counties: Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Ventura, Fresno, Inyo, Mono, Merced, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Tuolumne, Madera, Alameda, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Monterey

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