The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

rock buckwheat, round-headed eriogonum

Habit Spreading to erect sub-shrub, freely branched, forming a dense, rounded clump to 4 dm. tall.
Leaves

Numerous in whorls at the branch tips, broadly linear, 1-3 cm. long by 3-6 mm. wide, somewhat grayish-woolly on the underside and less so on the top

Flowers

Flowering stems 5-10 cm. tall, terminating in an umbel of two or more pedicels, which are subtended by several leafy bracts; the involucres are cup-shaped, with 6-10 oblong lobes about 3 mm. long, about equaling the tube, reflexed to spreading; the tepals are usually yellow, but occasionally white or pinkish, 6-8 mm. long with a stipe-like base, and forming a ball-like flower cluster.

Eriogonum diclinum

Eriogonum sphaerocephalum

Identification notes The dense, rounded clump of fine branches covered with bright yellow spheres of flowers should identify this species.
Flowering time May-July
Habitat Sagebrush or juniper flats to ponderosa pine forests at low elevations.
Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Washington to California, east to Idaho and Nevada.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Native
Conservation status Not of concern
Sibling taxa
E. baileyi, E. cernuum, E. codium, E. compositum, E. douglasii, E. elatum, E. flavum, E. heracleoides, E. maculatum, E. marifolium, E. microtheca, E. niveum, E. nudum, E. ovalifolium, E. pyrolifolium, E. sphaerocephalum, E. strictum, E. thymoides, E. umbellatum, E. vimineum
E. baileyi, E. cernuum, E. codium, E. compositum, E. douglasii, E. elatum, E. flavum, E. heracleoides, E. maculatum, E. marifolium, E. microtheca, E. niveum, E. nudum, E. ovalifolium, E. pyrolifolium, E. strictum, E. thymoides, E. umbellatum, E. vimineum
Subordinate taxa
E. sphaerocephalum var. halimioides, E. sphaerocephalum var. sphaerocephalum, E. sphaerocephalum var. sublineare
Web links