A New Addition to the Sausal Creek Watershed Plant List | Spotted Hideseed

During a recent walk along the Bridgeview Trail in Dimond Canyon, FOSC board president Robert Leidy came across an interesting plant that did not look familiar to him. It turned out to be common eucrypta, or spotted hideseed (Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia var. chrysanthemifolia), a native annual in the Waterleaf family (Hydrophyllaceae) that had not been previously reported in the Sausal Creek Watershed. Endemic to California, the species has been found in other parts of Alameda County and the greater Bay Region, but most of the reported occurrences are found in southwestern California according to the Calflora database.

This species was first described in 1835 by the British botanist George Bentham as Ellissia chrysanthemifolia. In 1847, Thomas Nuttall described Eucrypta as a new genus—its name meaning “well hidden” in reference to the tiny seeds. In 1885 Edward Lee Greene, a botanist at the Smithsonian Institution, moved Ellissia chrysanthemifolia into the genus Eucrypta. 

This plant has a branched, spreading habit with leafy stems covered in sticky glandular hairs. The lowest leaves grow opposite each other, while the upper leaves alternate. Leaf shapes range from oblong to broadly ovate, and are divided into lobes with rounded teeth along the edges. 

The small, bell-shaped flowers are white with purple veins, and the fruit is a capsule containing two seeds. Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia grows in a variety of habitats—including open woodlands, coastal bluffs, chaparral, and Joshua tree woodlands—and is especially common after fire. Its typical blooming period is March through June.

—Russell Huddleston, FOSC Board Member