Cryptantha recurvata

Curved-nut cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Curved-nut cryptantha is a California native annual found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert bioregions in sandy to rocky soils of creosote-bush scrub and Joshua-tree woodland at elevations of 650 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces tiny white flowers less than 1.5 millimeters in diameter, emerging from delicate branching stems. Growing as a slender plant 5 to 40 centimeters tall with coarse-strigose branches spreading from the base, it has a distinctive sparse and wiry appearance. Its leaves are narrow and linear to oblanceolate, 1 to 3 centimeters long and covered with stiff, appressed bristles that have bulbous bases. The fruit consists of unique curved, lanceolate nutlets 1.6 to 2 millimeters long, which are brown, papillate-tubercled, and distinctively bent inward.

Habitat: Sandy to rocky soils, creosote-bush scrub, Joshua-tree woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 650-1700(1830) m

Bioregions: SNE, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Mono, Imperial, San Diego

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