Eriogonum angulosum |
Eriogonum parvifolium |
|
---|---|---|
angle stem buckwheat, angle-stem wild buckwheat |
dune wild buckwheat, sea cliff buckwheat, seacliff wild buckwheat |
|
Habit | Herbs, erect to spreading, annual, 1–5(–10) dm, tomen-tose to floccose or glabrous, usually grayish. | Shrubs, matted to spreading or rounded, 3–10 × 5–20(–25) dm, thinly tomentose or glabrous, greenish. |
Stems | caudex absent; aerial flowering stems erect, striated, angled, solid, not fistulose, 0.5–1 dm, tomentose to floccose. |
spreading, sometimes matted, often with persistent leaf bases, up to 1/2 or more height of plant; caudex stems absent or matted; aerial flowering stems prostrate, spreading, or erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, 0.2–1 dm, thinly tomentose or glabrous. |
Leaves | basal and cauline; basal: petiole 0.5–3 cm, mostly floccose, blade oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 1–4(–4.5) × (0.2–)0.5–1(–1.3) cm, tomentose abaxially, floccose or glabrate and grayish or greenish adaxially, margins crenulate; cauline sessile, blade lanceolate to oblong, 0.5–2 × 0.3–0.8 cm, similar to basal blade. |
cauline, fasciculate, infrequently 1 per node; petiole 0.1–0.7 cm, floccose; blade lanceolate to round, 0.5–3 × 0.3–0.8(–1.2) cm, lanate to tomentose abaxially, mostly glabrous and olive green to green adaxially. |
Inflorescences | cymose, open, 5–80 × 10–60 cm; branches striated, angled, sparsely tomentose to glabrate; bracts 3, scalelike, 1–3 × 1–3 mm. |
capitate to cymose, 20–30 × 2–10 cm; branches dichotomous, thinly tomentose or glabrous; bracts 3, scalelike, triangular, and 1–2 mm, or leaflike, usually elliptic, and 5–20 × 2–10 mm. |
Peduncles | erect, straight, slender, 1–2 cm, sparsely tomentose to glabrous. |
absent. |
Involucres | turbinate-campanulate to campanulate, 1.5–2.5(–3) × 1.5–2.5(–3), sparsely puberulent; teeth 5, erect, 0.3–0.6 mm. |
2–7 per cluster, turbinate-campanulate, (2.5–)3–4 × 2–3.5 mm, floccose to glabrate; teeth 5, erect, 0.5–0.9 mm. |
Flowers | 1.5–1.8 mm; perianth white to rose, without a conspicuous rose-purple spot on each outer tepal, minutely glandular-puberulent; tepals dimorphic, those of outer whorl elliptic to obovate, sometimes inflated proximally, those of inner whorl narrowly spatulate; stamens exserted, 2–3 mm; filaments pilose proximally. |
2.5–3 mm; perianth white to pinkish or greenish yellow, glabrous; tepals connate proximally, monomorphic, obovate; stamens exserted, 2.5–3.5 mm; filaments pilose proximally. |
Achenes | light brown to brown, 3-gonous, 1–1.5 mm, glabrous. |
brown, 2.5–3 mm, glabrous. |
2n | = 40. |
|
Eriogonum angulosum |
Eriogonum parvifolium |
|
Phenology | Flowering year-round. | Flowering year-round. |
Habitat | Clayey flats and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, and chaparral communities, oak and conifer woodlands | Sandy beaches, dunes, and bluffs or sandy to gravelly inland slopes and flats, coastal grassland and chaparral communities, oak and pine woodlands |
Elevation | 0-800 m (0-2600 ft) | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
CA
|
Discussion | The name Eriogonum angulosum has been applied to all of the members of its species complex except E. gossypinum. Since the 1950s, the name consistently has been applied to plants with long, exserted stamens and strongly angled stems of the Inner Coast Ranges (Alameda and Contra Costa counties south), the western foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada (Tulare County south), and the Central Valley (San Joaquin County south). The southern edge of the range is the northern foothills of the Transverse Ranges (Ventura and Los Angeles counties). The species can be common and occasionally abundant but rarely is weedy. A mixed collection (with E. gracillimum) from Barstow, San Bernardino County (K. Brandegee s.n., May 1913, UC), and two sheets of the species from San Diego gathered by Susan Stokes apparently in 1895 (B, SD) are discounted as to location. In late fruit, the bractlets at the base of the pedicel inside the involucres of Eriogonum angulosum often elongate and broaden into oblanceolate segments that fill the involucre. As a result, the involucre appears to have several rows of teeth. This feature may be seen also in E. viridescens, but typically the involucres there appear to have only two or three rows of teeth. This feature is seen rarely in E. maculatum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The native range of Eriogonum parvifolium is restricted to coastal and near-coastal areas (Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties). The coastal expression (var. parvifolium) has thickened leaf blades (0.5–1.5 × 0.3–0.8 cm) and simple or dichotomous inflorescences of compact clusters of involucres containing white to rose flowers. Highly compact and dense mat-forming plants on rocky bluffs immediately next to the ocean were named var. crassifolium; those with yellow flowers were named var. lucidum. The inland form with thin leaf blades (1.5–3 × 0.3–0.8 cm) and highly-branched, cymose, white-flowered inflorescences is perhaps worthy of continued recognition as var. paynei, although there is no sharp distinction between the extremes. Several expressions of the seacliff wild buckwheat are in cultivation, and unfortunately the California Department of Transportation is using the species in roadside plantings, with the result that it is now established in Santa Clara County. Every effort should be made to halt its introduction beyond its native range. The species is the food plant for two federally endangered butterflies, the El Segundo dotted-blue (Euphilotes battoides allyni), near Los Angeles, and Smith’s dotted-blue (Euphilotes enoptes smithi), near Monterey. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 411. | FNA vol. 5, p. 300. |
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Ganysma | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Eucycla |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. parvifolium var. crassifolium, E. parvifolium subsp. lucidum, E. parvifolium var. lucidum, E. parvifolium subsp. paynei, E. parvifolium var. paynei | |
Name authority | Bentham: Trans. Linn. Soc. London 17: 406, plate 18, fig. 1. (1836) | Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 13(2): Eriogonum no. 2. (1809) |
Web links |