Eriogonum flavum |
Eriogonum flavum var. flavum |
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alpine golden buckwheat, alpine golden wild buckwheat, yellow buckwheat |
alpine golden buckwheat, alpine golden wild buckwheat |
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Habit | Herbs, matted, 0.2–4 × 1–10 dm, tomentose to floccose. | Plants tight, compact mats, 1–3(–5) dm wide. | ||||||||
Stems | caudex absent or spreading; aerial flowering stems erect or nearly so, slender, solid, not fistulose, arising at nodes of caudex branches and at distal nodes of short, nonflowering aerial branches, (0.1–)0.5–2(–3) dm, tomentose to floccose. |
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Aerial flowering stems | mostly erect, 0.1–2 dm. |
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Leaves | basal, occasionally in rosettes; petiole 0.5–4 cm, tomentose to floccose; blade linear-oblanceolate to oblong or elliptic, 1–7(–9) × (0.3–)0.5–1.5 cm, densely whitish- or grayish-tomentose abaxially, mostly tomentose to floccose or glabrous and green adaxially, margins entire, plane. |
blades usually elliptic, 1–5 × 0.3–1.5 cm, densely tomentose abaxially, tomentose to floccose and greenish adaxially. |
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Inflorescences | subcapitate or umbellate, 0.5–3(–5) × 0.3–2.5(–3) dm; branches tomentose to floccose; bracts 4–6, leaflike to semileaflike at proximal node, 0.5–2 × 0.2–0.5 cm, sometimes absent immediately below involucre. |
umbellate; branches 4–20 cm. |
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Involucres | 1 per node, turbinate to campanulate, 3–9 × 2–5 mm, tomentose to floccose; teeth 5–8, erect, 0.2–1 mm. |
turbinate to campanulate, 3–8 mm. |
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Flowers | 3–7 mm, including 0.2–1.5 mm stipelike base; perianth pale to bright yellow, densely pubescent abaxially; tepals monomorphic, oblong; stamens exserted, 3–6 mm; filaments pilose proximally. |
3–7 mm, including 0.3–1 mm stipelike base; perianth bright yellow. |
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Achenes | light brown to brown, 3–5 mm, glabrous except for sparsely pubescent beak. |
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2n | = 80. |
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Eriogonum flavum |
Eriogonum flavum var. flavum |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Sep. | |||||||||
Habitat | Clayey or sandy to gravelly flats and slopes, mixed grassland and sagebrush communities, montane conifer woodlands, high-elevation sagebrush communities, subalpine or alpine conifer woodlands | |||||||||
Elevation | 500-3200 m (1600-10500 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AK; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; OR; SD; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; YT
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CO; MT; ND; NE; SD; WY; AB; MB; SK |
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Eriogonum flavum approaches E. arcuatum morphologically in southeastern Wyoming, and a clear distinction is not always possible when the plants are immature or the herbarium material is poor. Variety polyphyllum, as traditionally circumscribed, is an alpine phase of both var. flavum and var. piperi; it is encountered infrequently in scattered range in the high mountains of southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety flavum is widespread and rather common on the short-grass prairies of the Great Plains from Alberta, southwestern Manitoba, and Saskatchewan south through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and eastern Colorado, westward across the plains and into the mountains of Montana and Wyoming. It occasionally is cultivated and, while slow-growing, it will, given time, form nice mats, with a fair profusion of inflorescences bearing bright yellow flowers. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 371. | FNA vol. 5, p. 372. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > Eriogonum flavum | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | E. flavum var. polyphyllum, E. polyphyllum | E. flavum subsp. crassifolium, E. flavum var. linguifolium, E. flavum var. muticum | ||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Cat. Pl. Upper Louisiana, no. 34. (1813) | unknown | ||||||||
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