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Home / Browse / Cryptantha / Wingnut Cryptantha (var. stenoloba)
iNaturalist — CC, credited & licensed per image
Pictured: Cryptantha pterocarya — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Boraginaceae family

Wingnut Cryptantha (var. stenoloba) Cryptantha pterocarya var. stenoloba variety

Native Specialist-bee host

Wingnut Cryptantha (var. stenoloba) is an annual wildflower native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Cryptantha pterocarya is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common name wingnut cryptantha. It is native to the western United States where it grows in many types of habitat. It is an annual herb producing a stem with a few branches that reaches up to about 40 centimeters in maximum height. The leaves are linear to oblong in shape and up to 5 centimeters long. The plant herbage is very hairy to bristly, generally rough in texture. The inflorescence is a length of developing fruits tipped with one or more open flowers. The flower has a white five-lobed corolla. The fruit is a nutlet which is often, but not always, winged. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 10 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host

Recorded feeding on Cryptantha in North America, including:

Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Cryptantha is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (11) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — GloBI · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[09] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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