There has often been confusion and misidentification resulting from the similarity between Cryptantha intermedia and some specimens of the closely related Cryptantha barbigera. Recently the large-flowered form of C. barbigera has received its own varietal status as var. fergusoniae (see Ferguson's bearded cryptantha) and is to be found mostly around the Coachella Valley. The more common var. barbigera reaches from the southern Sierra Nevadas and Tehachapi
Mts to the deserts and may be found in every county of southern California. It blooms from February to March. The pictures show here were taken in Joshua Tree NP and Whitewater Canyon. The stem is branched generally below the middle and has densely spreading-bristly hairs. The leaves are linear-oblong to narrowly lanceolate. The sepals are 4-6mm long, 5-10mm in fruit. The corolla is 1-3(4)mm across which differentiates it from var. fergusoniae which has corollas
6-8mm wide. There are 1-4 (usually 2-3) lanceolate to ovate nutlets that are white-tubercled on the back. This grows in open sandy to gravelly soils. C. barbigera var. barbigera generally has longer sepals but a smaller corolla limb then C. intermedia, and whereas barbigera has corolla appendages that range from white to light yellow, intermedia has appendages that are bright yellow.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Cryptantha 2) barbigera.
Pronunciation: kryp-TAN-tha bar-BI-jer-a.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.