Cryptantha scoparia
Snake river cryptantha
Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native
Conservation status: CNPS 4.3
Snake river cryptantha is a California native annual found in northeastern Sierra Nevada, western and Inyo Mountains, and northeastern Mojave Desert in sandy, gravelly soils of sagebrush scrub and pinyon-pine woodland at elevations of 1,480 to 2,740 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces small white flowers in delicate, elongating cymes. Growing with slender, stiff stems 5 to 30 centimeters tall that are densely gray and strigose, it appears as a fine, erect plant with multiple branching throughout. Its leaves are linear to lance-linear, 1 to 4 centimeters long, covered in minute strigose hairs with bulbous bases. The fruit consists of four nutlets, each 1.6 to 2.1 millimeters long, mottled gray-brown with angled margins and tapered tips.
Habitat: Sandy, gravelly soils, open slopes, flats, generally sagebrush scrub, pinyon-pine woodland, occasionally Joshua-tree woodland
Bloom period: Apr-Jul
Elevation: 1480-2740 m
Bioregions: ne SNE, W&I, ne DMoj
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.