Plant Species of the Grand Canyon South Rim Area:
Perennial Cryptanthas, Oreocarya species
Perennial Cryptanthas, Oreocarya species
Big Caveat! I am just learning about these species. I'm putting this page together so that I can try to figure them out.
Perennial cryptanthas used to be placed in section Oreocarya of Cryptantha, but in recent years have been placed in the genus Oreocarya. iNaturalist uses the Oreocarya genus for all of these except, for some reason, Cryptantha abata = Oreocarya depressa. Mike Simpson says this was a mistake in the Kew plant list used by iNat, and it should be updated to Oreocarya in the next month or so.
Those of us from southern California are amazed to see these perennial Cryptanthas, since nearly all of the plants encountered in southern California are annuals. The perennial Cryptanthas of the Grand Canyon are beautiful! When Don Rideout first saw Oreocarya capitata in bloom on the Tanner Trail, he said it "totally changed the way he views Cryptanthas". (:-)
Figs. 1 and 2 show pictures of the seven Oreocarya species found in the South Rim / Canyon area of the Grand Canyon from the Hermits Rest Basin on the west to the Desert Tower on the east. Fig. 1 shows closeups of the flowers scaled using the length of the corolla tube given in the Utah Flora. Fig. 2 shows pictures of the entire plant, not to scale.
Oreocarya flava | 
Oreocarya confertiflora |
Oreocarya capitata | 
Oreocarya flavoculata |
Oreocarya setosissima | 
Cryptantha abata (Oreocarya depressa) |
Oreocarya suffruticosa | (Intentionally blank) |
| Fig. 1. Pictures of Oreocarya species known from the Grand Canyon south rim / canyon area from Hermits Rest on the west to Desert Tower on the east, showing closeups of the flowers. The pix have been roughly scaled by the average size for the length of the corolla tube given in the Utah Flora.
Note that one can easily see the calyces of the individual flowers in the large heads of the three species with larger flower tubes. In contrast, the calyces of individual flowers are hard to see clearly in the four species with smaller flower tubes. All photos are from this Grand Canyon area except for Cryptantha abata (Oreocarya depressa), from Millard County, Utah; for O. flava, which is from the Kaibab Indian Reservation to the northwest, and for O. flavoculata, which is from Mesa County, Colorado, due to a lack of good pictures from the Grand Canyon area. Click on the pictures to go to the iNat obs or Voucher image for each one, which gives the information as to who took the photos. | |
Oreocarya suffruticosa | (Intentionally blank) |
Oreocarya capitata | 
Oreocarya flavoculata |
Cryptantha abata (Oreocarya depressa) | 
Oreocarya setosissima |
Oreocarya flava | 
Oreocarya confertiflora |
| Fig. 2. Pictures of the entire plants of Oreocarya species from the Grand Canyon south rim / canyon area from Hermits Rest on the west to Desert Tower on the east. All photos are from this Grand Canyon area except for O. flava, which is from the Kaibab Indian Reservation to the northwest, and for O. flavoculata, which is from Mesa County, Colorado, due to a lack of good pictures from the Grand Canyon area.
The photos are organized by rough similarity in gestalt, with the two yellow-flowered species in the bottom row. Click on the pictures to go to the iNat obs or Voucher image for each one, which gives the information as to who took the photos. | |
Two big caveats in relying on these pictures for identification:
- the gestalt of many Oreocarya species can change dramatically as their inflorescence matures and elongates;
- some species come in different forms. In particular:
- there are at least seven defined varieties of O. suffruticosa (see Simpson's key to the varieties). Variety cinerea is the most common one at the Grand Canyon, so the plants should be more uniform here.
- O. capitata comes in both a narrow leaf and wide leaf version; see the label on the voucher by Ron Kelley.
The seven species found in the South Rim / Canyon area from the Hermits Rest Basin on the west to the Desert Tower on the east, including the Canyon area down to the Colorado River, are given in Table 1. Table 1 also lists the number of vouchers and iNat observations for each species separately for the entire Grand Canyon area and for the South Rim Area. The elevation range is given for vouchers in each area. The numbers in Table 1 were from 6 October 2024, before I changed any iNat determinations.
Vouchers are much more reliably determined for these species than are iNat observations, since most the species are easily distinguished using the properties of the nutlets; see Fig. 3 below. The determinations of iNat observations which only have pictures of the plants are often "best guesses". The main purpose of this page is to try see how reliably one can distinguish an Oreocarya species based on pictures of the plants alone, without seeing the nutlets.
Table 1. # of Vouchers and # of iNat obs for the Oreocarya species in the Grand Canyon
| Name | Entire GC | South Rim Area | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # V | # iN | Elevation Range from Vouchers (ft) | # V | # iN | Elevation Range from Vouchers (ft) | ||
| O. capitata | 60 | 10 | 2700-8100 | 24 | 7 | 2900-6900 | |
| O. confertiflora | 171 | 16 | 1300-7500 | 10 | 1 | 3100-7400 | |
| O. depressa | 3 | 0 | 3600-4300 | 2 | 0 | 3600-4300 | |
| O. flava | 37 | 5 | 2400-7000 | 0 | 1 | ||
| O. flavoculata | 5 | 17 | 4800-6100 | 0 | 13 | ||
| O. setosissima | 78 | 5 | 4900-8800 | 2 | 0 | 4900-6500 | |
| O. suffruticosa | 89 | 20 | 3200-8500 | 11 | 6 | 3200-7400 | |
Caveats: The elevation ranges should be taken with a large grain of salt, since a minor change in the georeferenced coordinates can make a big change in the derived elevation. I have used the elevation quoted in the voucher, whenever there is one, which is something I rarely do since people often don't know the elevation where they were. But in the Grand Canyon, people probably know their elevation better than it can be deduced from georeferenced coordinates. For the others, I have used the National Map elevation retrieval for the georeferenced coordinates. Due to inaccuracies in the georeferenced coordinates, the derived elevation could easily by off by hundreds of feet, and by several thousand feet in some cases.
To get the numbers in Table 1, I reviewed the locality of all vouchers that were georeferenced in the South Rim Area, and tossed those that weren't actually collected there, or had a vague location like "Grand Canyon". Often vouchers are simply georeferenced as being the Grand Canyon Village area, contaminating geographic voucher searches.
Links to SEINet pages of these species, with (usually) photographs of live plants, descriptions of the species, and photographs of vouchers
- O. capitata.
- O. confertiflora.
- O. depressa.
- O. flava.
- O. flavoculata.
- O. setosissima.
- O. suffruticosa.
Links to iNat observations of these species
The following two links retrieve all iNat observations determined as any Oreocarya species for two regions: the South Rim / Canyon area, and the entire larger Grand Canyon area, and display the number of observations for each species. Click on the text at the bottom of the icon for each species, such as the "13 observations" for O. flavoculata, to retrieve just the observations of that species. If you click anywhere else on the icon, you'll instead go to the iNat species page for that species.
- All Oreocarya species in the Grand Canyon south rim / canyon area from Hermits Rest on the west to Desert Tower on the east.
- All Oreocarya species in the greater Grand Canyon area.
Notes about these species:
O. capitata. This species is characterized by long, very narrow basal leaves, a strongly-capitate inflorescence held well above the basal leaves, white petals, bright yellow fornices (fornices form a ring at the base of the petals, very long calyces and corolla tubes, and a corolla tube that is distinctly exserted from the calyx lobes. The wide-leaved form mentioned in the Introduction apparently is not found in Arizona.
The most similar Grand Canyon species is O. confertiflora, but that species has a yellow corolla and different-shaped nutlets.
Wendy Hodgson's tips: "This species is fairly common on Hermit and Supai formations. O. capitata often grows with Penstemon utahensis in Canyon in same formations." On the Bright Angel Trail, this corresponds to an elevation range of 4660 to 6070 feet.
Wendy's comparison of O. capitata and O. flavoculata:
Need fruits for accurate determination. Fruits of capitata are smooth while flavoculata are quite roughened. Oreocarya capitata is fairly common on Hermit and Supai formations, which is suggested by the red soil/rocks in photo and location. What appears to be a strictly capitate inflorescence and less pubescence also suggests O. capitata. Flavoculata is more pubescent on stems and inflorescence, the latter also being densely cylindric (except sometimes in small plants - see Intermountain Flora).
Wendy says that O. capitata has "conspicuously yellow fornices".
McDougall's Grand Canyon Wildflowers says that O. capitata is "known only from the Grand Canyon", but the SEINet voucher map shows it is also found in southern Utah, with one disjunct voucher in northeast Utah.
O. confertiflora. This species is characterized by long, very narrow basal leaves, a strongly-capitate inflorescence held well above the basal leaves, yellow petals and fornices, very long calyces and corolla tubes, and a corolla tube that is longer than the calyx lobes.
The most similar Grand Canyon species are O. capitata, which has a white corolla and different-shaped nutlets, and O. flava, which can be more difficult to separate. See comments under O. flava.
O. depressa.
O. flava. Wendy Hodgson's comparison of O. confertiflora and O. flava:
Without seeing the nutlets, can be difficult to discern the two - 1-2 in flava (and are quite large) vs 4 ("seldom fewer") in confertiflora. Intermountain Flora notes how the confertiflora inflorescence "tending to have a terminal cluster of flowers and usually 1-several much smaller, more or less remote clusters" vs in flava inflorescence is more elongate-cylindric with several flower clusters of nearly equal size. Emphasis on the "tending." Except for 2 specimens, all of the flava collected in Canyon are those I collected and id'd, which gives me pause. Having just looked at them, I am more convinced one has to have the nutlets. A few with an inflorescence like confertiflora has only 1-2 (large) nutlets, not 4. I thought there might be leaf width and pubescence differences (wider and more pubescent in flava), but doesn't seem to hold up based on few specimens. Any insight appreciated!
The key in A Utah Flora by Welsh et al to separate these two species is:
4 Inflorescence an elongate, cylindrical thryse; nutlets lanceolate with acute margins, usually only 1 maturing ... O. flava4' Inflorescence consisting of a large terminal cluster with 1 or more remote, at maturity frequently stalked, in much smaller lateral clusters; nutlets broadly ovate, with winged margins, all 4 usually maturing ... O. confertiflora
The key in McDougall's Grand Canyon Wildflowers is:
20 Flowers in a rather dense, narrow panicle; corolla bright yellow ... O. flava
20' Flowers in terminal, headlike clusters with a few similar but smaller clusters in the leaf axils; corolla pale yellow ... O. confertiflora
Higgins says:
[O. flava] is closely related to O. confertiflora, but may be separated from that species by the narrowly lanceolate nutlets and the longer thyrsoid inflorescence.[O. confertiflora] may be distinguished from its closest relative, O. flava, by the broader more ovate nutlets and the longer stems with a subcapitate inflorescence.
Higgins gives the inflorescence length for O. confertiflora as 0.3 to 2 dm long, and for O. flava as 0.5 to 2.5 dm long, which has considerable overlap. He gives the stem length for O. confertiflora as 1.5 to 2.5 dm long, and for O. flava as 0.8 to 2.6 dm long, which also has considerable overlap. It is interesting that he didn't mention the difference in the number of nutlets.
I suspect Wendy is correct about the difference in the inflorescence not being so clear at times. Even in the examples in Fig. 2, the difference in inflorescence shape is a bit subtle.
O. flavoculata. This species was not mentioned in the 1951 Flora of Arizona by Kearney and Peebles, nor in the 1960 Supplement to that Flora, nor in the 1964 Flora of the Grand Canyon in McDougall's Grand Canyon Wildflowers. There are only five vouchers of this species in the Grand Canyon, all in its easternmost section, from the Little Colorado River, the upper Nankoweap Trail on the North Rim, west of Cochise Butte (2 from the same collection event), and the Vermilion Cliffs region. This species is abundant in Utah just north of the Grand Canyon, so it is quite plausible that this species had been missed in Arizona until those five vouchers were collected in 1993, 1999, 2007, and 2009.
O. setosissima. "Cryptantha [Oreocarya] setosissima is the tallest member of the genus in Arizona, and the most common in ponderosa pine forests" (SW Field Guide). "The stem is stout, 15 to 30 inches tall; mostly unbranched except near the top, very bristly; racemes in a narrow panicle; flowers numerous; corolla white" (McDougall 1964).
O. suffruticosa. This species was called Cryptantha jamesii in the 1951 Flora of Arizona by Kearney and Peebles, and in the 1964 Flora of the Grand Canyon in McDougall's Grand Canyon Wildflowers. Kearney and Peebles say that this species has "numerous seasonal and ecological forms, which, even in the same region, differ greatly in appearance". They say that the "most common phase of the species in northern Arizona is var. cinerea. This has spreading or decumbent stems usually 10 to 20 cm long, rarely becoming twice the length of the basal tuft of leaves.... at maturity most of them bear reduced cymes in their axils. The inflorescence of var. cinerea hence becomes proportionately more elongate".
O. suffruticosa has "light yellow fornices" (Welsh, Utah Flora, under Cryptantha cinerea). However, my photographs of one plant show that some fresh flowers have yellow fornices similar to those of O. capitata, alongside other flowers with light yellow fornices. Welsh is probably referring to the color of pressed, dried plants.
Key to distinguish these species
This key has been taken from McDougall's Grand Canyon Wildflowers, with the addition of O. flavoculata by me in a new couplet A. Unfortunately, in this key, nutlets (the seeds of Cryptanthas are called "nutlets") are needed to separate five of the seven species. The two yellow species can be distinguished by couplet 20 below based on the shape of their inflorescence.
18 Corolla tube distinctly longer than calyx .... 19
18' Corolla tube scarcely if any longer than calyx ... 21
19 Corolla white ....
A. Nutlets smooth and shining .... O. capitata
A'. Nutlets more or less roughened ... O. flavoculata
19' Corolla yellow ... 20
20 Flowers in a rather dense, narrow panicle; corolla bright yellow ... O. flava
20' Flowers in terminal, headlike clusters with a few similar but smaller clusters in the leaf axils; corolla pale yellow ... O. confertiflora
21 Nutlets smooth and shiny, not flattened ... O. suffruticosa
21' Nutlets rough, strongly flattened ... 22
22 Margin of nutlets with a conspicuous, papery wing; plant usually more than 16 inches tall ... O. setosissima
22' Margin of nutlets not winged; plants usually less than 16 inches tall ... O. depressa
The nutlets of these seven species are shown in Fig. 3. A simple glance at those nutlets makes it clear how much easier it is to identify these species from their nutlets!
O. capitata | 
O. confertiflora. | 
O. depressa. | 
O. flava |
O. flavoculata | 
O. setosissima | 
O. suffruticosa | (Intentionally blank) |
| Fig. 3. Pictures of the nutlets of our seven Oreocarya species from the Grand Canyon south rim / canyon area from Hermits Rest on the west to Desert Tower on the east. The bar represents a length of 1 mm. The nutlet shown for O. suffruticosa is for its var. abortiva, which has recently been moved to species level as O. abortiva. This nutlet should be representative of the Grand Canyon plants, too.
The photographs were taken from Simpson's page on each species. Click on the pictures to go to Simpson's page for each species, which contains much more information about each species, including synonyms, links to the original description, a range map, voucher photographs, and often photographs of live plants. | |||