[4] Botanist William Alfred Weber later noted that the 2 genera were different in form as Oreocarya was a "biennial or perennial from rosettes of basal leaves; flowers more than 5 mm in diameter, often distinctly long-tubular with prominent yellow eye", while Cryptantha was an "annual without rosettes of basal leaves; flowers minute, less than 5 mm diameter, short-tubed with inconspicuous eye".

The flower (or inflorescence) is an open, rounded, leafy bracteate thyrsus or a helicoid shaped cyme.

[6] Other botanical authors (including Alice Eastwood and Per Axel Rydberg, added more species to the genus up until 1916.

[6] 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.

[8] Botanist John Kartesz from Missouri Botanical Garden Press agreed with the re-classification, as part of the Biota of North America Program (BONAP) in 2015.

[9] It is found in Canada (within the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan) in the United States (within the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado,[10] Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) and also in northern Mexico.

Some species grow in sandy deserts (O. jamesii), on alpine slopes (such as O. weberi, O. crymophile and O. thompsonii), O. virginensis, O. rugulosa and O. semiglabra can tolerate clay soils, but no species grows in moist and undrained soils.