Cryptantha utahensis (Scented Catseye, Scented Forget-Me-Not)

 3/22/03 Hagen Canyon Nature Trail, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Kern County, CA

3/22/03 Hagen Canyon Nature Trail

LIFE LIST NOTES:

COMMON NAME: Scented Catseye, Scented Forget-Me-Not

SPECIES: Cryptantha utahensis

FAMILY: Boraginaceae (Borage Family)

LIFE LIST DATE: 3/22/2000

LOCATION:  Hagen Canyon Nature Trail, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Kern County, CA

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Treatment from The Jepson Manual (1993):

Annual 10–30 cm

Stem branched throughout; branches generally ascending, strigose

Leaf 0.3–3(5) cm, linear to oblong, ± appressed-bristly; some bristles on lower surface bulbous-based

Inflorescence generally dense in fruit; lower flowers not touching

Flower: sepals 2–2.5 mm, 2.5–3 mm and elliptic to ovate in fruit, densely strigose to rough-hairy near margin, hairs ascending; corolla scented, tube 2–2.5 mm, limb 2–4 mm wide, throat appendages generally bright yellow

Fruit: nutlets 1(2), ± 2 mm, lanceolate, ± 3-sided, margin sharp-angled to narrowly winged distally, back finely tubercled to white-granular, groove flared open at base

Ecology: Sandy to gravelly soils, creosote-bush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Elevation: < 2000 m.  

Bioregional distribution: s East of Sierra Nevada, Desert 

Distribution outside California: to sw Utah, Arizona

Flowering time: Mar–May