Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Small, dainty annual herb, 5-20 cm tall; stems slender and weak, erect to ascending and diffusely branched, strongly scented and covered with glandular hairs intermixed with non-glandular hairs.

Leaves: Lower leaves opposite with winged petioles, upper leaves alternate with auriculate-clasping petioles; blades pinnatifid with rounded lobes, 1.5-5 cm long and 0.5-2.5 cm wide; reduced above.

Flowers: Light purple, clustered at the ends of branches in cymes of 4-12 flowers; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes 2 mm long, united for the lower half, with stalked glands and non-glandular hairs; corolla campanulate, the lobes white, pale violet, or lavender, the throat yellow with yellow nectaries and often-nectar filled in the morning.

Fruits: Capsule 2-3 mm in diameter, enclosed in the erect calyx lobes, splitting into 2 obovoid carpels; seeds corrugate or tuberculate, 7-15 per capsule.

Ecology: Widespread, often in shade of shrubs and in moist soil, below 4,000 ft (1219 m); flowers February-May.

Distribution: CA, NV, UT, AZ, NM, s TX; south into Baja MEX.

Notes: This delicate annual grows particularly well in years of abundant moisture. It can form small mats, often in shade where the ground has slightly more moisture, and dies when as soil dries out. Look for pinnately lobed leaves with 7-9 very rounded lobes, and tiny purple flowers with round-lobed calyxes covered with glandular hairs. Similar to E. chrysanthemifolia but that species has twice-pinnately lobed leaves and lacks glandular hairs in the inflorescence.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Eucrypta is from Greek eu, well or true and crypta, secret, alluding to hidden inner seeds, while micrantha means small-flowered.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015, AHazelton 2015