''Greeneocharis circumscissa'' is a species of flowering plant in the
borage family,
known by the common name cushion cryptantha. It is native to western North America from
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
to
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
to
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
and it is also found in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
. It grows in sandy or gravelly types of habitat, from mountains to desert, below above sea level.
[ Philip Alexander Munz ]
This is an
annual
Annual may refer to:
* Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year
**Yearbook
**Literary annual
* Annual plant
*Annual report
*Annual giving
*Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco
*Annuals (band), ...
herb producing a short, bristly, multi-branched stem tangled into a mat no more than 10 centimeters tall. It grows from a red
taproot
A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...
which dries purple. The leaves are up to 1.5 centimeters long, linear to widely lance-shaped, and densely hairy to bristly. The
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...
is a length of developing fruits with a dense cluster of up to 5 flowers at the tip. The flower has a five-lobed white corolla with yellow appendages at the top of its tube. It flowers between April and August.
[
It was first published in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club vol.36 on page 677 in 1909.][
The Latin ]specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''circumscissa'' is derived from the Latin for "cut around" because the upper half of the fruiting calyx falls away when the nutlets are ripe.[
* ''Greeneocharis circumscissa'' var. ''circumscissa''
* ''Greeneocharis circumscissa'' var. ''hispida''
* ''Greeneocharis circumscissa'' var. ''rosulata''
]
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfilePhoto gallery
Boraginaceae
Plants described in 1909
Flora of the Northwestern United States
Flora of the Southwestern United States
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