Burke: Eriogonum flavum vs. Eriogonum strictum

	Eriogonum flavum	Eriogonum strictum
	yellow buckwheat	strict buckwheat
Habit	Tufted perennial with several woody branches coming from a stout taproot and covered with dead leaves, and several simple stems to 2 dm. tall top with a compact, multi-rayed umbel and ball-shaped flower clusters.	Perennial with woody stems up to 1 dm. long, the several flowering stems to 3 dm. tall, usually white-woolly throughout and more or less freely branched.
Leaves	Basal, closely crowded, usually more or less gray-woolly, especially below, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 3-7 cm. long with a petiole about the same length.	Mostly basal, the blades elliptic to ovate, 5-25 mm. long, usually white-woolly on the lower surface and less so on the top, on petioles as long to 4 times as along as the blades.
Flowers	Flowering stems leafless, 5-20 cm. long; inflorescence a simple umbel, rays up to 3 cm. long, subtended by 4-6 somewhat leafy bracts; involucre covered with soft hairs, cone-shaped, 4-7 mm. long with 4-5 shallow lobes; tepals 4-6 mm. long, usually pale to deep yellow but sometimes rose-tinged, covered with soft, silky hairs, and with a short, stipitate base.	Flowering stems leafless, the inflorescence from open and freely branched with the involucres single at the branch tips to umbellate and the involucres somewhat clustered; with small, linear bracts at the forks of the branches; involucres narrowly cup-shaped, with 5 triangular, erect, short teeth; tepals white or cream to pinkish or yellow, 3-4 mm. long, divided nearly to the non-stipitate base, the segments oblong, the outer twice as broad as the inner.

	Eriogonum flavum	Eriogonum strictum
Identification notes		Eriogonum strictum plants with the branched inflorescence may be separated from the similar E. niveum by the bracts at the branch joints, which are small and thread-like in E. strictum and leaf-like in E. niveum. The E. strictum plants with umbellate and somewhat compressed flower clusters may be confused with E. ovalifolium when the tight, head-like flower clusters of the latter are in umbels instead of single.
Flowering time	June-August	May-July
Habitat	Open knolls in grasslands to alpine ridges and scree.	Sandy or rocky soils, sagebrush desert to ponderosa pine forests.
Distribution	Occurring east of the Cascades crest in southeastern Washington; Alaska to northeastern Oregon, east to the northern Great Plains. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]	Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Washington to California, east to Montana, Idaho, and Nevada. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Native	Native
Conservation status	Not of concern	Not of concern
Sibling taxa	E. baileyi, E. cernuum, E. codium, E. compositum, E. douglasii, E. elatum, 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. sphaerocephalum, E. thymoides, E. umbellatum, E. vimineum
Subordinate taxa	E. flavum var. piperi	E. strictum var. anserinum, E. strictum var. proliferum, E. strictum var. strictum
Web links	Local floras: BC, OR, WA Local Web sites: Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Local floras: CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Tufted perennial with several woody branches coming from a stout taproot and covered with dead leaves, and several simple stems to 2 dm. tall top with a compact, multi-rayed umbel and ball-shaped flower clusters.

Perennial with woody stems up to 1 dm. long, the several flowering stems to 3 dm. tall, usually white-woolly throughout and more or less freely branched.

Leaves

Basal, closely crowded, usually more or less gray-woolly, especially below, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 3-7 cm. long with a petiole about the same length.

Mostly basal, the blades elliptic to ovate, 5-25 mm. long, usually white-woolly on the lower surface and less so on the top, on petioles as long to 4 times as along as the blades.

Flowers

Flowering stems leafless, 5-20 cm. long; inflorescence a simple umbel, rays up to 3 cm. long, subtended by 4-6 somewhat leafy bracts;

involucre covered with soft hairs, cone-shaped, 4-7 mm. long with 4-5 shallow lobes;

tepals 4-6 mm. long, usually pale to deep yellow but sometimes rose-tinged, covered with soft, silky hairs, and with a short, stipitate base.

Flowering stems leafless, the inflorescence from open and freely branched with the involucres single at the branch tips to umbellate and the involucres somewhat clustered; with small, linear bracts at the forks of the branches;

involucres narrowly cup-shaped, with 5 triangular, erect, short teeth;

tepals white or cream to pinkish or yellow, 3-4 mm. long, divided nearly to the non-stipitate base, the segments oblong, the outer twice as broad as the inner.

Eriogonum flavum

Eriogonum strictum

Identification notes

Eriogonum strictum plants with the branched inflorescence may be separated from the similar E. niveum by the bracts at the branch joints, which are small and thread-like in E. strictum and leaf-like in E. niveum. The E. strictum plants with umbellate and somewhat compressed flower clusters may be confused with E. ovalifolium when the tight, head-like flower clusters of the latter are in umbels instead of single.

Flowering time

June-August

May-July

Habitat

Open knolls in grasslands to alpine ridges and scree.

Sandy or rocky soils, sagebrush desert to ponderosa pine forests.

Distribution