Eremocarya
Eremocarya is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. There are two species and its native range extends through the western United States and Texas to northwestern Mexico. It is part of subtribe of Amsinckiinae.
It was once thought to be an either a subgenus or synonym of Cryptantha, before being segregated out due to molecular phylogenetic analysis.
Description
A profusely branching annual herb with very slender, ascending, nearly leafless stems and the leaves are arranged in a basal rosette. The roots and the lower parts of the stems are often stained with a red, or purple hue.The flowers in March–June, are dense racemes, spiciform with evenly spaced, leafy-bracteate beneath each flower. The calyx is small and divided into 5 sections from the base. It has a small white corolla.
It has 4 ovules and 4 nutlets, which are similar in size and shape. The gynobase is thin and columnar, they are nearly similar to the wide style, which is dilated and wider that the stigma when in fruit.
Taxonomy
The Latin specific epithet Eremocarya is derived from "Eremos" which is Greek for "desert" or "lonely" and "caryum" is Greek for "nut".It was first published by Edward Lee Greene in Pittonia vol.1 on page 58 in 1887.
Then in 1924, Ivan M. Johnston wrote that the genus of Oreocarya could be combined with Cryptantha. Edwin Blake Payson in 1927 agreed with Johnston and he had four sections in
Cryptantha: Eucryptantha, Geocarya, Krynitzkia, and Oreocarya.
Larry Higgins, another expert on the perennial taxa, published a revised monograph of Oreocarya, and agreed with Johnston and Payson on the
inclusion of Oreocarya within Cryptantha, but also elevating the four sections of Johnston and Payson to subgenera. Although they were sometimes still called synonyms of Cryptantha.
In 2012, the phylogenetic relationship of members of the genus Cryptantha was carried out, based on dna sequencing analyses, it was then
proposed that the resurrection of the following genera Eremocarya, Greeneocharis, Johnstonella, and also Oreocarya.
Species
2 species are accepted.Eremocarya lepida Eremocarya micranthaIn 2016, a large flowered version of Eremocarya micrantha was found and published as E. micrantha var. pseudolepida.