[5] It has branches ascending to erect on a slender stem, generally strigose (having straight hairs all pointing in more or less the same direction).

The flower consists of calyx lobes which are fused at base,[4] and the tube is circumscissile in fruit (meaning it splits or opens along a circumference).

The margin is rounded and has an attachment scar abutted near apex, forked and gapped at the base.

[4] The Latin specific epithet Greeneocharis is derived from California botanist Edward Lee Greene (1843–1915) and charis which means "beauty, delight".

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.