Eriogonum fasciculatum |
Eriogonum inflatum |
|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
California buckwheat, California wild buckwheat, eastern Mojave buckwheat, eastern Mojave wild buckwheat |
bottle stopper, desert trumpet, Indian pipeweed |
|||||||||||||
Habit | Shrubs or subshrubs, compact to spreading or rounded and more or less erect, occasionally decumbent, infrequently scapose, (1–)2–15 × 2–25(–30) dm, tomentose to canescent, floccose, or glabrous. | Herbs, erect, perennial, occasionally flowering first year, 1–10(–15) dm, glabrous, usually glaucous, grayish. | ||||||||||||
Stems | sprawling or spreading to erect, often with persistent leaf bases, up to 1/2 or more height of plant; caudex stems absent or matted to spreading; aerial flowering stems erect to spreading, slender, solid, not fistulose, 0.3–2.5(–3) dm, tomentose, canescent, or glabrous. |
caudex compact; aerial flowering stems erect, solid or hollow and fistulose, (0.2–)2–5 dm, glabrous, usually glaucous, occasionally hirsute proximally. |
||||||||||||
Leaves | cauline, 1 per node or fasciculate; petiole 0.1–0.3 cm, canescent; blade linear to linear-oblanceolate or oblanceolate, 0.6–1.5(–1.8) × 0.05–0.4(–0.6) cm, white-tomentose or canescent to subglabrous abaxially, tomentose or canescent and grayish, subglabrous, or glabrous and green adaxially, margins often revolute. |
basal; petiole 2–6 cm, hirsute; blade oblong-ovate to oblong or rounded to reniform, (0.5–)1–2.5(–3) × (0.5–)1–2(–2.5) cm, short-hirsute and grayish or greenish on both surfaces, sometimes less so or glabrous and green adaxially, margins occasionally undulate. |
||||||||||||
Inflorescences | cymose, infrequently cymose-umbellate or capitate, compact to open, occasionally flat-topped, 0.2–20 × 0.2–15 cm; branches dichotomous, infrequently absent, tomentose to canescent or glabrous; bracts usually 3, scalelike, triangular, and 1–3 mm, or leaflike, linear to oblanceolate, and 3–10 × 1–3 mm. |
cymose, open, spreading to erect, 5–70 × 5–50 cm; branches occasionally fistulose, glabrous, usually glaucous; bracts 3, scalelike, 1–2.5(–5) × 1–2.5 mm. |
||||||||||||
Peduncles | absent. |
erect, straight, filiform to capillary, 0.5–2(–3.5) cm, glabrous. |
||||||||||||
Involucres | (1–)3–8 per cluster, turbinate to campanulate, 2–4 × 1.5–3 mm, canescent, pubescent, glabrous, or subglabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.3–1.2 mm. |
turbinate, 1–1.5 × 1–1.8 mm, glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.4–0.6 mm. |
||||||||||||
Flowers | 2.5–3 mm; perianth white to pinkish, glabrous or pubescent; tepals connate proximal 1/4, monomorphic, usually elliptic to obovate; stamens exserted, 2.5–5 mm; filaments subglabrous or pubescent proximally. |
(1–)2–3(–4) mm; perianth yellow with greenish or reddish midribs, densely hirsute with coarse curved hairs; tepals monomorphic, narrowly ovoid to ovate; stamens exserted, 1.3–2.5 mm; filaments glabrous or sparsely pubescent proximally. |
||||||||||||
Achenes | light brown to brown, 1.8–2.5 mm, glabrous. |
light brown to brown, lenticular to 3-gonous, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous. |
||||||||||||
2n | = 32. |
|||||||||||||
Eriogonum fasciculatum |
Eriogonum inflatum |
|||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering year-round. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Sandy to gravelly washes, flats, and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, creosote bush, mesquite, and sagebrush communities, pinyon and/or juniper woodlands | |||||||||||||
Elevation | -30-1800(-2000) m (-100-5900(-6600) ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; UT; including nw Mexico
|
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
|
||||||||||||
Discussion | Varieties 5 (4 in the flora). Eriogonum fasciculatum is a complex, polyploid series of variants that are generally distinct but often difficult to distinguish morphologically. Variety emphereium Reveal is confined to central Baja California, Mexico. The introduction of Eriogonum fasciculatum as a decorative roadside plant by the California Department of Transportation is resulting in hybrid populations involving E. cinereum. The aggressively weedy and (for Arizona) exotic variety foliosum is rapidly invading the native habitat of var. polifolium. Members of E. fasciculatum are food plants for several butterflies, notably the Bernardino dotted-blue (Euphilotes bernardino), lupine blue (Plebeius lupini), Mormon metalmark (Apodemia mormo), and Behr’s metalmark (A. virgulti). Probably the butterfly most commonly seen with the species is the nut-brown hairstreak (Satyrium saepium), which frequents plants in full flower. Eriogonum fasciculatum is also the most important native source of honey in California. This widespread species was used extensively by Native Americans for a variety of ailments. Its application for pain and headaches (D. P. Barrows 1900; K. Hedges 1986; E. W. Voegelin 1938) was rather common, as was its general use for diarrhea (Hedges; Voegelin). M. L. Zigmond (1981) reported that the Kawaiisu lined their acorn granaries with leaves of var. proliferum to keep out rain—a daunting challenge given the size of the leaves! L. Hinton (1975) reported the use of a decoction of dried flowers and roots to maintain a healthy heart, and M. C. Stevenson (1915) indicated that a powder derived from the roots was used by the Zuñi to treat wounds, whereas a root decoction was taken for colds and hoarseness. B. R. Bocek (1984) reported that the Costanoan Indians of California used a decoction of the plant to treat unspecified urinary problems. F. H. Elmore (1943) reported the use of a decoction of var. proliferum by the Navajo (Diné) people as an anti-witchcraft medicine. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The cause of the fistulose stem and inflorescence branches in Eriogonum inflatum was imaginatively attributed by A. M. Stone and C. T. Mason (1979) to the larvae of gall insects. This fallacy continues to appear in the literature. Greenhouse studies have shown that stems of this and some other species of the genus inflate without the presence of any insects. Other researchers have shown that the inflation involves a build-up of CO2 within the stems, which take over as the primary photosynthetic body as leaves wilt or eventually dry up and fall away from the plant (C. D. Osmond et al. 1987). Not all individuals of E. inflatum will have fistulose stems and branches, as this feature is partly a function of available moisture: the drier the conditions, the less pronounced the inflation. Stems produced in the summer tend to be inflated less frequently than those produced in the spring. The “annual” phase of Eriogonum inflatum is distinct from its truly annual relatives. Its flowering stems and inflorescence branches are distinctly grayish, whereas those of the true annuals are green or yellowish green. As circumscribed here, Eriogonum inflatum occurs in Arizona, southern and east-central California, western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, central and southern Nevada, and southern and eastern Utah. Some Native Americans occasionally ate newly emerged stems of Eriogonum inflatum (S. A. Weber and P. D. Seaman 1985; M. L. Zigmond 1981). The hollow stems were used as drinking tubes (Weber and Seaman) and pipes (E. W. Gifford 1936). This wild buckwheat is a food plant for the desert metalmark butterfly (Apodemia mormo deserti). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 297. | FNA vol. 5, p. 386. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Eucycla | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Ganysma | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | E. glaucum, E. inflatum var. deflatum, E. trichopes subsp. glaucum | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Bentham: Trans. Linn. Soc. London 17: 411. (1836) | Torrey & Frémont: in J. C. Frémont, Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 317. (1845) | ||||||||||||
Web links |