Cryptantha Intermedia, Clearwater Cryptantha

Cryptantha intermedia produces one or more stems, branched or not, reaching heights of up to 24 inches, covered, usually, by both spreading bristly hairs and finer, appressed hairs. Leaves are bristly-hairy, especially along the edges and on the undersides; the hairs are ascending to appressed. Leaf tips are rounded.

Flowers are produced in small groups, of two to four; they have a five-lobed calyx, the lobes narrowly oblong, with appressed bristly hairs, and a five-lobed corolla, white with pale yellow appendages around the throat.

There are two varieties of cryptantha intermedia; var johnstonii of coastal California, and the more widespread var intermedia, differing in characteristics of the stem hairs and the nutlets.