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| Heterotheca grandiflora |
| Family: Boraginaceae (Borage) |
| Flowers — color: yellow, size: 1/8", type: 5 petals |
Cleveland's Cryptantha flower has five bright white petals. Five yellow lumps make a small hollow 'o' at the center. The genus name Cryptantha means 'hidden flower' in Greek. The flower doesn't open to expose its sexual parts, so it becomes self-pollinating.
One or more tight clusters of flowers form at the end of stems. Like others in the Borage family, the cluster is a cyme, an array of buds directly attached to the stem. A train of seedpods develops over the season as the flowering stem extends.
First wildflower to bloom in the coastal scrub [February] and still going in June or later.
Habit:
Be careful not to step on this small annual, Cleveland's Cryptantha. Its size ranges from a 1" single-stem to 12" multi-branch plant. Narrow leaves, up to 1" long, attach alternately around the stem. The stem and leaf edges have very fine hairs. Grows in open sandy areas in the coastal scrub, and along trails and clearings in the chaparral.
Cryptanthas have a nickname: Forget-Me-Not. They involve dozens of species with a range of habits — bushy or rangy, tall or compact, few or many flowers. Most have white petals and many have a little yellow "o" — an expert often needs seed samples to confirm species identity. Although their flower structures are similar, they are not related to the perennial Forget-Me-Nots used in gardens.