Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Erect to openly spreading weak stemmed annual, to 90 cm tall.

Leaves: Oblong to widely ovate, pinnate to deeply pinnately lobed, lobes 7-13, deeply 1-2 pinnately lobed, teeth obtuse, lower leaves 2-10 cm, 1-5 cm wide; upper leaves smaller, less lobed, bases clasping.

Flowers: Cymes with 4-15 flowers per branch, pedicels generally recurved in fruit; calyx 2-4 mm, corolla 2-6 mm, white or bluish, equaling or slightly exceeding calyx, lobes hairy on back, style less than 3 mm.

Fruits: Capsule 2-4 mm in diameter, seeds 6-8, dark brown, some elliptic or round, disk-like, and smooth, while others oblong-ovoid and wrinkled.

Ecology: Found often beneath trees, in canyons, on slopes and disturbed areas below 3,000 ft (914 m); flowers February-April.

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

Notes: Told apart from E. micrantha by the bipinnatifid leaves that are all more or less petiolate, the inflorescence not being stipitate-glandular, and the dimorphic seeds.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Eucrypta is from Greek eu, well or true and crypta, secret, alluding to hidden inner seeds, while chrysanthemifolia means with leaves that look like chrysanthemum foliage.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015