Eriogonum strictum |
Eriogonum douglasii |
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strict buckwheat |
Douglas's buckwheat |
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Habit | 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. | Low, matted subshrubs 5 to 15 cm. in height. |
Leaves | 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. |
Numerous, linear to linear-spatulate, 5 to 20 mm. long, gray- or white-woolly on both surfaces, especially the lower. |
Flowers | 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. |
Flowering stems 5-10 cm. long, with a whorl of bracts at mid-length, and generally a single, terminal cup-shaped involucre of 6-10 oblong, white-wooly lobes about 3 mm. long. Flower buds blood-red, opening to cream-colored or slightly pinkish or yellowish tepals, 6-8 mm. long with a stipe-like base 1-2 mm. long |
Eriogonum strictum |
Eriogonum douglasii |
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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. | Separate from the similar Eriogonum thymoides by the involucre lobes; E. thymoides has erect lobes, E. douglasii, reflexed to spreading lobes. |
Flowering time | May-July | May-July |
Habitat | Sandy or rocky soils, sagebrush desert to ponderosa pine forests. | Sagebrush or juniper flats to ponderosa pine forests, often on lithosol. |
Distribution | Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Washington to California, east to Montana, Idaho, and Nevada.
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Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington, chiefly in the central region; Washington to California, east to Idaho and Nevada.
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Origin | Native | Native |
Conservation status | Not of concern | Not of concern |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Web links |