Oreocarya nubigena
Sierra oreocarya
Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Sierra oreocarya is a California native perennial found in central Sierra Nevada, northeastern Sierra Nevada, and White and Inyo Mountains on alpine slopes, ridges, and gravelly areas at elevations of 2,600 to 3,900 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces white to yellow flowers with delicate yellow corolla appendages. Growing with several elongate stems 3 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms tufted clusters with a woody, branched caudex. Its basal leaves are narrow oblanceolate to spoon-shaped, 2 to 5 centimeters long, covered in strigose hairs and sparse soft bristles that are often bulbous at the base. The fruit consists of 2 to 4 shiny nutlets, 2.2 to 4.5 millimeters long, with irregularly wrinkled surfaces.
Habitat: Slopes, ridges, gravel, scree, talus, occasionally dry meadows, open pine forest
Bloom period: Jun-Sep
Elevation: (2400)2600-3900+ m
Bioregions: c&s SNH, ne SNE, W&I
California counties: Inyo, Fresno, Tulare, Mono, San Bernardino, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Madera
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.