Greeneocharis similis

Dome greeneocharis, Dome Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: annual · Native

Dome greeneocharis is a California native annual found in northern Santa Barbara Mountains, northwestern Santa Bernardino Mountains, southeastern Peninsular Ranges, and southern Mojave Desert in gravelly to coarse sandy soils, Joshua-tree woodland, and occasionally pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 700 to 1,870 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces yellow flowers with conspicuous appendages in small clusters of one to three blooms. Growing as a cushion-like annual with ascending to spreading branches 3 to 12 centimeters in diameter, it features a distinctive red-purple plant base and slender branches covered in coarse, ascending hairs. Its leaves are crowded at branch ends, linear to oblanceolate, roughly 0.3 to 1 centimeter long with margins rolled under and covered in ascending to appressed hairs. The fruit consists of two to four shiny brown nutlets, each triangular-ovate and 1.2 to 1.5 millimeters long with sharp-angled margins.

Habitat: Gravelly to coarse sandy soils, Joshua-tree woodland, occasionally pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 700-1870 m

Bioregions: n SnGb, nw SnBr, se PR, s DMoj.

California counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kern, 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.