Eriogonum alatum |
Eriogonum alatum var. alatum |
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wing buckwheat, wing wild buckwheat |
wing buckwheat, wing wild buckwheat |
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Habit | Herbs, monocarpic, 5–20(–25) dm, strigose or glabrous; taproot often chambered. | Plants 5–13(–17) dm. | ||||
Stems | caudex absent; aerial flowering stems usually 1, not fistulose, 2–13 dm, strigose or glabrous. |
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Aerial flowering stems | strigose. |
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Leaves | basal and sometimes cauline; basal petiolate, petiole 2–6 cm, stigose to woolly or glabrous, blade linear-lanceolate or lanceolate to oblanceolate to spatulate, (3–)5–20 × 0.3–2 cm, strigose, becoming glabrous and green on both surfaces except for margins and midvein; cauline sessile, blade linear-oblanceolate to lanceolate, 1–9 × 0.3–0.8(–1) cm, similar to basal blade. |
basal, infrequently cauline; basal: petiole 2–6 cm, strigose to woolly or glabrous, blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, (3–)5–15 × 0.3–2 cm, strigose or glabrous except for margins and midveins; cauline: blade 1–6 cm. |
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Inflorescences | 2–10 dm; branches strigose or glabrous; bracts semileaflike proximally, linear to linear-lanceolate, 2–9 × 1–3 mm, scalelike distally, triangular, 0.8–5 × 0.5–2 mm. |
2–10 dm; branches thinly strigose, infrequently glabrous at maturity. |
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Peduncles | erect, straight or curving upward, 0.5–3.5 cm, strigose or glabrous. |
strigose or nearly so. |
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Involucres | turbinate to campanulate, 2–4(–4.5) × 2–4(–4.5) mm, strigose or glabrous; teeth 1–1.8 mm. |
strigose or rarely glabrous. |
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Flowers | 1.5–2.5 mm in anthesis, 3–6 mm in fruit; perianth yellow to yellowish green, rarely maroon in anthesis, often reddish or maroon in fruit, glabrous; tepals lanceolate; stamens 1.5–3 mm; filaments glabrous. |
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Perianths | yellow to yellowish green. |
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Achenes | yellowish green to reddish brown, 5–9 mm, glabrous, 3-winged entire length, beakless. |
5–8 × 3–6 mm. |
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2n | = 40. |
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Eriogonum alatum |
Eriogonum alatum var. alatum |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Oct. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, and sagebrush communities, oak, pinyon and/or juniper, and montane conifer woodlands | |||||
Elevation | (500-)1300-3100(-4000) m ((1600-)4300-10200(-13100) ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AZ; CO; KS; NE; NM; OK; TX; UT; WY; including Mexico
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AZ; CO; KS; NE; NM; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua) |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). The mature reddish roots of Eriogonum alatum can be distinctively chambered. The Navajo (Diné) people consider the species to be a “life medicine” (L. C. Wyman and S. K. Harris 1951), using a mixture of shredded roots and water primarily to treat internal ailments. The species is used also as a ceremonial medicine (P. A. Vestal 1952). The Zuni use it as an emetic for stomachaches (S. Camazine and R. A. Bye 1980). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety alatum is widespread and often common from southeastern Wyoming and adjacent southwestern Nebraska southward through eastern Utah, Colorado, and western Kansas to northern Arizona, New Mexico, and northern and western Texas to northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The variety rarely is cultivated, as an individual plant may go up to seven (or more) years before flowering, after which it dies. Inclusion here of var. mogollense, characterized by spatulate leaves and woolly petiole bases, is now suggested, as both features fail to hold in some populations near Flagstaff, Arizona, the center of its distribution. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 379. | FNA vol. 5, p. 380. | ||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Pterogonum | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Pterogonum > Eriogonum alatum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Pterogonum alatum | E. alatum subsp. mogollense, E. alatum var. mogollense, E. alatum subsp. triste, E. triste | ||||
Name authority | Torrey: in L. Sitgreaves, Rep. Exped. Zuni Colorado Rivers, 168, plate 8. (1853) | unknown | ||||
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