Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Big Gypsum Valley, May 5, 2010.

Oreocarya revealii grows in lovely clusters to sixteen inches in diameter and nine inches tall.  The plant at left is six inches wide and four inches tall.  Notice last year's dried flower stems at the base of the plant. 

Oreocarya revealii is a rare plant, found only in Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel Counties of west-central Colorado.  The plant is being carefully protected by various agencies.

James Reveal and C. Rose Bloome named this plant Cryptantha gypsophila in 2006 from specimens they collected in the gypsum formations of far western Colorado. William Weber and many other botanists place this plant in the genus Oreocarya. Weber also gave the plant a new specific epithet honoring Reveal, one of the most respected botanists of our time. (Click for biographical information about Reveal.)

Oreocarya revealii. Synonym: Cryptantha gypsophila. (Reveal's Cat's Eye)
Boraginaceae (Forget-Me-Not Family)

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Big Gypsum Valley, May 5, 2010.

Oreocarya revealii is very similar to O. paradoxa and can, in the words of Reveal and Bloome, be "distinguished from the related and more widespread Oreocarya paradoxa... [by its] leaf blades with a glabrous upper surface and a lower surface with conspicuously pustulate-based bristles rather than uniformly sericeous-strigose to villous leaf blade surfaces".

Oreocarya revealii. Synonym: Cryptantha gypsophila. (Reveal's Cat's Eye)
Boraginaceae (Forget-Me-Not Family)

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Big Gypsum Valley, May 5, 2010.

Oreocarya revealii. Synonym: Cryptantha gypsophila. (Reveal's Cat's Eye)
Boraginaceae (Forget-Me-Not Family)

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring.
Big Gypsum Valley, May 5, 2010.

Unusual soils give rise to unusual plants. A number of new species have been found in these gypsum hills.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Oreocarya revealii