Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Perennial with a woody caudex, 13-44 cm tall, simple, erect stem, tomentose below, strigose and sparsely bristly above.

Leaves: Oblanceolate, 3-12 cm, upper surface strigose, lower surface with bulbous-based bristles.

Flowers: Generally dense inflorescence, more or less head-like at tip, axillary clusters below; with sepals 6-10 mm, 9-14 in fruit, strigose and spreading-bristly; corolla yellow, tube 9-13 mm, limb 8-12 mm wide.

Fruits: Nutlets 4, 3-4 mm, ovate to deltate, back smooth, groove closed, edges overlapping.

Ecology: Found in dry soils and commonly on limestone from 4,000-9,000 ft (1219-2743 m); flowers May-July.

Notes: This species is questionable in the SODN region. It appears to consistently be in northwestern Arizona, spreading into southeastern Utah, and the deserts of California, east of the Sierra Nevada.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genera have uses.

Synonyms: Oreocarya confertiflora

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Etymology: Cryptantha comes from the Greek krypto, "hidden," and anthos, "flower," a reference to the first described species in the genus which has inconspicuous flowers that self-fertilize without opening; confertiflora means means with crowded flowers.