Oreocarya flavoculata

Yellow-eyed oreocarya, Yellow-Eyed Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Yellow-eyed oreocarya is a California native perennial found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and desert mountains on loose limestone-based soils at elevations of 1,200 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces flowers with a bright yellow corolla limb approximately 8 to 12 millimeters in diameter. Growing in dense clusters with multiple stems 5 to 35 centimeters tall, it forms a woody, branched caudex with strigose and bristly stems. Its basal leaves form rosettes 2 to 11 centimeters long, ranging from linear-oblanceolate to spoon-shaped and covered in dense, silky strigose hairs with bulbous-based bristles. The fruit consists of 2 to 4 brown nutlets that are ovate, 2.5 to 3.2 millimeters long, with a distinctively textured surface of dense sharp papillae and cross-ridges.

Habitat: Common. Loose limestone-based soils

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1200-3200 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMtns

California counties: Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, Riverside, Lassen, Alpine

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