Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Thicksepal cryptantha

THICKSEPAL CRYPTANTHA

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Cryptantha crassisepala (T. & G. ) Greene

Morton County, Kansas

Annual

Height: To 6 inches tall

Family: Boraginaceae - Borage Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

Thicksepal catseye.

Stems:

Decumbent to ascending, branching from base, bristly-hairy; branches crowded.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, mostly sessile, linear to lanceolate, .4 to 1.2 inch long, to 1/8 inch wide, stiff-hairy; margins entire, tips pointed to rounded.

Inflorescences:

Cyme, 1 to 5 inches long, elongate and raceme-like with age, terminal on branches; no bractlets at bases of flowers.

Flowers:

Sepals 5, equal, lanceolate; calyx in fruit 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, bristly-hairy; bristles translucent, to 1/12 inch long; corolla 1/25 to 1/12 inch wide, 5-lobed, white, throat appendages sometimes yellow; stamens 5.

Fruits:

Nutlets 4, covered with minute bumps; each containing single seed.

Habitat:

Sand-sage prairie, prairie slopes, prairie-dog towns; dry, sandy or silty soils.

Distribution:

West 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans considered the plant to be a poisonous weed, but crushed and boiled the plant and applied it as a lotion for itching, boils, and fatigued limbs.

Comments:

Cryptantha crassisepala strongly resembles Cryptantha minima but the latter species has bractlets at the bases of the flowers.

Thicksepal cryptantha inflorescence