''Oreocarya roosiorum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the Borago, borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 to 154 genus, genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single famil ...

known by the common name bristlecone cryptantha. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Inyo County, California Inyo County () is a County (United States), county in the Eastern California, eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the po ...

, where it is known from only a few occurrences in the northern

Inyo Mountains The Inyo Mountains are a short mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in the United States. The range separates the Owens Valley to the west from Saline Valley to the east, extending for approximately south-southeast f ...

. It is a small, mat-forming perennial herb just a few centimeters high which grows from a woody

caudex A caudex (: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is most ...

rooted in rocky soils. The leaves are up to about a centimeter long, oval to spoon-shaped, and hairy to bristly. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a dense cluster of tiny white flowers with five-lobed white corollas with yellow appendages.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Cryptantha roosiorum''USDA Plants Profile: ''Cryptantha roosiorum''CalPhotos Photo Gallery
roosiorum Endemic flora of California Plants described in 1955 {{Boraginoideae-stub