Cryptantha watsonii

Watson's cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Watson's cryptantha is a California native annual found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Great Basin in rocky, gravelly soils of sagebrush scrub and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 1,250 to 3,100 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces pale yellow to white flowers in small, dense clusters with delicate petals. Growing with slender stems 10 to 35 centimeters tall, it has thin branches with strigose and short rough hairs spreading throughout. Its leaves are linear to oblanceolate, 0.5 to 4 centimeters long, with short bulbous-based bristles on the underside and densely strigose surfaces. The fruit consists of four nutlets, 1.4 to 2 millimeters long, with smooth, shiny gray surfaces and a distinctive flat knife-like margin.

Habitat: Rocky, gravelly soils, sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland, occasionally conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1250-3100(3300) m

Bioregions: SNH (e slope), GB

California counties: Alpine, Mono, Lassen, Inyo, Tulare, Calaveras, Modoc, Plumas, Madera, Fresno, Butte, San Bernardino, Placer

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