There are two species and its native range extends through the western United States and Texas to northwestern Mexico.

A profusely branching annual herb with very slender, ascending, nearly leafless stems and the leaves are arranged in a basal rosette.

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.

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.

[9] 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.