Oreocarya humilis subsp. humilis

Low oreocarya, Low Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Low oreocarya is a rare California native perennial found in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, Great Basin, and northern Desert Mountains in gravelly sagebrush to subalpine habitats at elevations of 1,700 to 3,600 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces cream-colored flowers that age to brown, with yellow appendages in dense cylindric clusters. Growing in clustered clumps with multiple erect green stems 5 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms a woody, branched caudex. Its basal leaves are spoon-shaped to oblanceolate, 1.5 to 6 centimeters long, ranging from green to gray-green and covered in stiff, appressed bristles. The plant produces 2 to 4 small nutlets that are ovate, finely grainy, and dull with a narrow flat margin.

Habitat: Common. Gravelly soils, sagebrush to subalpine

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1700-3600 m

Bioregions: SNH (rare s), GB, n DMtns

California counties: Alpine, Mono, Inyo, Lassen, Tuolumne, Placer, Nevada, Fresno, Modoc, El Dorado, Ventura, Sierra

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