Cryptantha rostellata

Red-stemmed cryptantha, Red-Stemmed Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Red-stemmed cryptantha is a California native annual found in northern California regions including North Coast Ranges Interior, northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, Sacramento Valley, and northwestern Modoc Plateau in open, rocky, dry sites, sparse grasslands, chaparral, and foothill woodlands at elevations of 40 to 800 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in small cymes with a delicate 1 to 2 millimeters wide corolla. Growing with distinctive red stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall that are stiff and strigose, it develops few branches that can extend distally or throughout the plant. Its leaves are ascending, thick, and oblanceolate, forming several opposite pairs near the inflorescence, typically 1 to 1.5 centimeters long with spreading hairs. The fruit consists of a single shiny, lance-ovate nutlet 2.3 to 2.8 millimeters long with a flattened, rounded profile and wide-truncate base.

Habitat: Open, rocky, dry sites, shallow-soiled volcanic flats, sparse grassland, chaparral, foothill woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 40-800 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, n SNF, ScV, nw MP

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