UW Burke Herbarium species comparison

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Eriogonum thymoides

Eriogonum microtheca

thyme buckwheat, thyme-leaf wild buckwheat

slender buckwheat
Habit Intricately branched, low and spreading to erect shrub 5-15 cm. tall, somewhat gray-woolly to silky throughout. Scraggly, woody perennial with a few, leafy stems to 4 dm. tall, and a much-branched inflorescence with tiny, terminal flower clusters.
Leaves

Leaves many, linear to linear-spatulate, 3-10 mm. long, usually revolute, somewhat wooly beneath and silky above.

Leaves alternate, linear to oblong or narrowly obovate, 1-3 cm long, narrowed gradually to a short petiole, gray-woolly beneath and greenish but with some hairs above, crowded along the lower half of the stem.
Flowers

Flowering stems 3-8 cm. tall, always with a whorl of leaves about mid-length;

involucres single and terminal, top-shaped, 3-5 mm. long, the teeth 6-8, erect, triangular, 1 mm. long;

perianth with a stipitate base 0.5-1 mm. long, densely hairy, the 6 segments obovate, yellow or white to rose-red, 4-6 mm. long; plants dioecious, the staminate flowers with 9 stamens, the filaments hairs only at the base, the pistillate flowers with stout, spreading styles 0.5-1 mm. long.

Inflorescence freely branching, open, flat-topped, 2-20 cm. long;

involucres borne singly, 2-2.5 mm. long, with short, scarious-margined teeth;

tepals top-shaped, 2-2.5 mm. long, white to pink or yellow, the rounded lobes somewhat longer than the tube, without a stipe at the base.
Fruits

Achenes pubescent above

Achene

Eriogonum thymoides

Eriogonum microtheca
Identification notes Separate from the similar Eriogonum douglasii by the involucre lobes; E. thymoides has erect lobes, E. douglasii, reflexed to spreading lobes. The scraggly, leafy stems that are woody for about the lower third are unique among the Eriogonums in our area.
Flowering time April-June June-August
Habitat Sagebrush deserts, dry ponderosa pine forest openings, and open ridges in lower mountains. Sandy deserts to lower mountain slopes, chiefly with sagebrush.
Distribution
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in central Washington; central Washington to Oregon, east to Idaho.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in central Washington; central Washington to California, east to the Rocky Mountains.
[WildflowerSearch 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. nudum, E. ovalifolium, E. pyrolifolium, E. sphaerocephalum, E. strictum, 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. niveum, E. nudum, E. ovalifolium, E. pyrolifolium, E. sphaerocephalum, E. strictum, E. thymoides, E. umbellatum, E. vimineum
Subordinate taxa
E. microtheca var. laxiflorum
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the University of Washington's Burke Herbarium.



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