Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae
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" Lehm. ex G. Don, 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 (spike-shaped) 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 appear after flowering), which are similar in size and shape. The gynobase (a short conical or flat elevation of the receptacle of a flower, bearing the gynoecium) is thin and columnar, they are nearly similar (in form) 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 (A Monograph of the section "Oreocarya" of "Cryptantha", Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 14:211-358) agreed with Johnston and he had four sections in
"Cryptantha": "Eucryptantha" (= "Cryptantha"), "Geocarya", "Krynitzkia" (inclusive of "Eremocarya", "Greeneocharis", and "Johnstonella"), and "Oreocarya".
Larry Higgins (1971), 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 (1927) and Payson (1927) 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.
In 2016, a large flowered version of "Eremocarya micrantha" was found and published as "E. micrantha" var. "pseudolepida".
Distribution.
The genus is found in the United States (within the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Utah) and also in north western Mexico.
Habitat.
Species of the genus are found in dry sandy places below elevation or on montane slopes and valley sides at .
References.
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