Cryptantha intermedia  (A. Gray) E. Greene Boraginaceae  (Borage Family) Native  Popcorn Flower White Forget-Me-Not Common Cryptantha

                                            April Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Erectly branched, commonly stiff annual 1.5-5 dm. tall, frequently somewhat strigose, usually very hirsute; lvs. lanceolate to linear, hispid or strigose, 1.5-5 cm. long,  +/- pustulate; fls. in bractless scorpioid spikes, in 2's to 5's, 5-15 cm. long; calyx in fr. oblong-ovoid, ca. 4-6 mm. long, the lance-linear lobes connivent with +/- spreading tips, the thick midribs pungently hirsute, the margins short-hispid or villous; corolla 3-7 mm. broad, throat appendages bright yellow; nutlets mostly 4, lance-ovoid, 1.5-2.3 mm. long, tubercled or verrucose, the back convex, the groove narrow and closed, with small basal areole; style usually reaching ca. to tip of nutlets.

Habitat:  The common cismontane sp., mostly below 3000 ft., but reaching 7000 ft.; Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, Foothill Wd., etc., to desert borders; n. to n. Calif.; L. Calif.  March-July.

Name:  Greek, cryptos, hidden, and anthos, fl., because of the minute corolla in the first known spp.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 250).  Latin, inter, preposition meaning between, among and Latin, medius, middle.  (Jaeger 129,151).  The species name may have to do with the plant characteristics being between those of two other species.

General:  Occasional in the study area but generally found in a colony when located.   Photographed on the Castaway's Bluffs and on the bluffs at the north end of Eastbluff.  (my comments).      Because they bloom so abundantly and look like a light snowfall when they cover a field, the Spanish speaking people once called them nievitas, "little snow."  The juice from the stems can stain your fingers, and the roots of some species contain a rich dye.  (Dale 78).     About 65 species of New World, mostly western North America, and some in southwest South America.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 250).       Delfina Cuero, a Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian, in her autobiography, made comments concerning the uses of many plants.  Her words on C. intermedia were:  "I do not know any use for this one".  (Shipek 88).

Text Ref:  Dale 78; Hickman, Ed. 374; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 255; Roberts 14.

Photo Ref:  Mar 1 83 # 17,18; April 1 83 # 10; Mar 1 84 # 2; April-May 94 # 1A.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by G. Marsh.  

First Found:  March 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 203.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 5/17/05.

                 April Photo                                                 April Photo