Cryptantha

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae}}

{{Distinguish|text=Cryptanthus}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Cryptanthamuricata.jpg

|image_caption = Cryptantha muricata

|taxon = Cryptantha

|authority = Lehm. ex G.Don

|type_species = Cryptantha glomerata

|type_species_authority =

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = about 200, see text.

}}

Cryptantha is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. They are known commonly as cat's eyes and popcorn flowers (the latter name is also used to refer to the closely related genus Plagiobothrys,Hasenstab-Lehman, K. E. and M. G. Simpson. (2012). [http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/publications/Hasenstab_Simpson2012-Cryptantha-Boraginac.pdf Cat's eyes and popcorn flowers: phylogenetic systematics of the genus Cryptantha s. l. (Boraginaceae).] Systematic Botany 37(3), 738-57. and members of the subtribe of Amsinckiinae).{{cite web |title=Amsinckiinae |url=http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/amsinckiinae/ |website=www.sci.sdsu.edu |access-date=2 July 2022}} They are distributed throughout western North America and western South America, but they are absent from the regions in between.

These are annual or perennial herbs usually coated in rough hairs and bearing rounded flower corollas that are almost always white, but are yellow in a few species. Several morphological characters are used to distinguish species from one another, but the most definitive is the form of the nutlet, which varies in shape, size, color, and pattern of attachment.

Species

The genus has been reorganized several times. {{As of|2024|March}}, Plants of the World Online accepts about 110 species:{{Cite web |title=Cryptantha Lehm. ex G.Don {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30000489-2 |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=Plants of the World Online |language=en}}

File:Cryptantha fendleri (4048568427).jpg]]

File:Cryptantha pterocarya 1.jpg]]

File:Cryptantha scoparia (7162017689).jpg]]

Image:Cryptanthaclevelandii.jpg]]

File:Cryptantha utahensis close.jpg

=Formerly placed here=

Many Cryptantha species have been transferred to other genera:Simpson, M. G. and the Plant Systematics Lab, SDSU. [http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/cryptantha/ Cryptantha s.l. Taxonomy & Images.] Based upon Hasenstab-Lehman, K. E. and M. G. Simpson. (2012).

References

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