popcorn flowers and cryptanthas

Member of borage family (family Boraginaceae)
borages (order Boraginales)
dicots (class Magnoliopsida)
flowering plants (subphylum Angiospermae)

These genuses are difficult to distinguish between and among each other except by minute features of their nutlets. Nutlets may be found within the older (proximal) calyxes while younger flowers bloom above.

popcorn flowers
genus Plagiobothrys

annual cryptanthas
genus Cryptantha

pygmyflower cryptantha
Johnstonella micromeres

petal diameter ± 0.5 mm
no corolla appendages
4 nutlets, 0.7–1 mm, tubercled (sometimes with one larger than the others and smooth)

There are no perennial cryptanthas (genus Oreocarya) in the bay area.

4 observed taxons / 19 unobserved taxons / 3 keys

Chris’s observations: 58 (33 are research grade)

Locations:

Henry Coe SP: 11
Calero CP: 10
Joseph D. Grant CP: 8
Santa Teresa CP: 5
Edgewood Park & Natural Preserve: 4
Almaden Quicksilver CP: 3
Máyyan 'Ooyákma Coyote Ridge OSP: 3
Coyote Lake / Harvey Bear Ranch CP: 2
Coyote Valley OSP: 2
Long Ridge OSP: 2
Pacheco SP: 2
Pleasanton Ridge RP: 2
Purisima Creek Redwoods OSP
Russian Ridge OSP
Sierra Vista OSP
Sunol Wilderness RP

Months:

Feb.: 3
Mar.: 17
Apr.: 26
May: 12

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