Oreocarya subretusa

Crater lake oreocarya, Crater Lake Cryptantha

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Crater lake oreocarya is a California native perennial found in the southeastern Klamath Ranges from Scott Mountains to Mount Eddy, the high Cascade Range, and Modoc Plateau in conifer forest to subalpine habitats at elevations of 2,050 to 2,720 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces yellow-appendaged white flowers in dense, cylindric clusters with blossoms 4 to 6 millimeters in diameter. Growing in dense clusters with stout gray-green stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall, it forms a woody, branched caudex with multiple stems. Its basal rosette leaves are thick and spoon-shaped, 1 to 4 centimeters long, gray-green with strigose surfaces and sparse appressed bristles. The fruit consists of 2 to 4 narrow-ovate nutlets 3 to 4.8 millimeters long, with convex surfaces that are slightly tubercled and wrinkled.

Habitat: Pumice, ash, occasionally serpentine, generally conifer forest to subalpine

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: (1320)2050-2720 m

Bioregions: se KR (Scott Mtns to Mount Eddy), CaRH, MP

California counties: Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Trinity, Mono

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