Citation: Smith Trans. Linn. Soc. 4:217 (1798).

Derivation: Greek kryptos, hidden; aner, andros, a man; the anthers are hidden in the hood-shaped petals.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Small shrubs, hairy; leaves usually very small, stipules persistent.

Flowers small, whitish, usually with persistent brown bracts at the base, separate or crowded into small heads usually without subtending floral leaves; sepals 5, persistent together with the floral tube; petals 5, hood-shaped, enclosing the anthers, both inserted at the top of the floral tube; disk not or rarely conspicuous; floral tube more or less adnate to the ovary and extended well beyond it; ovary partly or quite inferior, 3-celled, summit hairy; style minutely 3-lobed.

Capsule surmounted by persistent sepals and floral tube, separating into 3 (or fewer) coriaceous fruitlets keeled on the inner suture; seed ovoid, dorsally compressed, with a crustaceous testa; funicle dilated into a cup-shaped aril at the base of the seed.

Distribution:  A genus of about 40 Australian species; in the south-west province of and southern eremaean W.Aust., spreading east and north to Tas. and south-eastern Qld. Cryptandras.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Disk prominent; leaves 10-15 mm long	C. waterhousii 6.
1. Disk inconspicuous; leaves less than 10 mm long
2. Flowers sessile in dense heads with floral leaves
3. Floral leaves broad, more or less orbicular, white; stem leaves obovate	C. leucophracta 3.
3. Floral leaves terete, similar to stem leaves	C. hispidula 2.
2. Flowers in loose heads or short spikes or racemes, not dense heads, without floral leaves
4. Flowers hoary with a short tomentum; branchlets seldom spiny	C. tomentosa 5.
4. Flowers silky with mostly simple hairs; branchlets spiny or almost so
5. Brown bracts covering only the base of the floral tube	C. amara 1.
5. Brown bracts covering the whole floral tube	C. propinqua 4.

Author: Not yet available