Burke: Eriogonum nudum vs. Eriogonum elatum

	Eriogonum nudum	Eriogonum elatum
	bare-stem buckwheat, naked buckwheat	rush buckwheat, tall buckwheat
Habit	Perennial with a few sparingly-branched, green, leafless stems to 5 dm. tall.	Sturdy perennial from a thick taproot with wiry, glabrous and glaucous flowering stems 3-8 dm. tall.
Leaves	All basal, the blades oblong to oval, dense gray-woolly beneath and green above with some soft, fine hairs, narrowed abruptly to a slender petiole 2-4 times as long as the blade.	Basal, ovate, 7-15 cm. long, truncate at base, slightly hairy by green on both surfaces, with petioles about as long as the blade.
Flowers	Open, branched inflorescence with leafy bracts at the first and second points of branching; involucres usually in capitate clusters, tubular, with 5 erect, short teeth; flowers interspersed with numerous, filiform bracts that protrude form the involucres. Tepals white to pinkish or yellowish, 3-4 mm. long, divided nearly to the base into oblong segments.	Inflorescence large, open, loosely cymose, the cup-shaped involucre about 3 mm. long and few-flowered; the tepals 3 mm. long, white to cream but pinkish in the bud, without a stipe at the base, pubescent on the lower half.

	Eriogonum nudum	Eriogonum elatum
Identification notes	Separate from E. elatum by the leaves and flower clusters. E. elatum has large leaves somewhat triangular in shape and green on both surfaces, and it has only a few flowers in each cluster.	Separate from Eriogonum nudum by the leaves and flower clusters. E. nudum has more-or-less oblong leaves that are white-woolly underneath on petioles at least twice as long as the blade; the flowers are usually in tight, globose clusters.
Flowering time	June-August	June-August
Habitat	Sandy or rocky places from the lowlands to subalpine.	Sand and gravel slopes and flats, grasslands, sagebrush desert, ponderosa pine forest openings, and montane ridges.
Distribution	Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in southern Washington; southern Washington to California and Nevada. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]	Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Washington to California, east to southern 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. flavum, E. heracleoides, E. maculatum, E. marifolium, E. microtheca, E. niveum, 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. 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
Subordinate taxa	E. nudum var. nudum	E. elatum var. elatum
Web links	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	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

Eriogonum elatum

bare-stem buckwheat, naked buckwheat

rush buckwheat, tall buckwheat

Habit

Perennial with a few sparingly-branched, green, leafless stems to 5 dm. tall.

Sturdy perennial from a thick taproot with wiry, glabrous and glaucous flowering stems 3-8 dm. tall.

Leaves

All basal, the blades oblong to oval, dense gray-woolly beneath and green above with some soft, fine hairs, narrowed abruptly to a slender petiole 2-4 times as long as the blade.

Basal, ovate, 7-15 cm. long, truncate at base, slightly hairy by green on both surfaces, with petioles about as long as the blade.

Flowers

Open, branched inflorescence with leafy bracts at the first and second points of branching;

involucres usually in capitate clusters, tubular, with 5 erect, short teeth;

flowers interspersed with numerous, filiform bracts that protrude form the involucres. Tepals white to pinkish or yellowish, 3-4 mm. long, divided nearly to the base into oblong segments.

Inflorescence large, open, loosely cymose, the cup-shaped involucre about 3 mm. long and few-flowered; the tepals 3 mm. long, white to cream but pinkish in the bud, without a stipe at the base, pubescent on the lower half.

Eriogonum nudum

Eriogonum elatum

Identification notes

Separate from E. elatum by the leaves and flower clusters. E. elatum has large leaves somewhat triangular in shape and green on both surfaces, and it has only a few flowers in each cluster.

Separate from Eriogonum nudum by the leaves and flower clusters. E. nudum has more-or-less oblong leaves that are white-woolly underneath on petioles at least twice as long as the blade; the flowers are usually in tight, globose clusters.

Flowering time

June-August

Habitat

Sandy or rocky places from the lowlands to subalpine.

Sand and gravel slopes and flats, grasslands, sagebrush desert, ponderosa pine forest openings, and montane ridges.

Distribution