Eriogonum giganteum |
Eriogonum giganteum var. compactum |
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St. Catherine's-lace |
Santa Barbara Island buckwheat, Santa Barbara Island St. Catherine's-lace |
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Habit | Shrubs, round to erect, 3–20(–35) × (3–)5–20(–35) dm, tomentose to floccose or glabrate, grayish to reddish. | Plants 4–6(–10) dm. | ||||||||
Stems | spreading to erect, occasionally with persistent leaf bases, up to 3/4 or more height of plant, often with a distinct main trunk up to 1 dm thick; caudex stems absent; aerial flowering stems erect to spreading, slender to stout, solid, not fistulose, 1–4 dm, tomentose to glabrate. |
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Aerial flowering stems | (1.5–)2–3 dm, tomentose. |
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Leaves | cauline, 1 per node; petiole 0.5–4 cm, tomentose; blade oblong-ovate to ovate or lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 2.5–7(–10) × 1–5 cm, white-tomentose abaxially, sometimes slightly less so or cinereous to somewhat glabrate and greenish adaxially, margins plane, sometimes crisped. |
petiole 0.5–1 cm; blade oblong-ovate, 2.5–3.5(–6) × 1.5–2(–4) cm, densely white-tomentose on both surfaces or sometimes slightly less so adaxially. |
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Inflorescences | cymose, open or compact, 5–30 × (2–)5–50(–80) cm; branches dichotomous, tomentose to floccose or glabrate; bracts 3, scalelike, broadly triangular, and 1–2 mm, or leaflike, oblanceolate to elliptic, and 5–30 mm. |
compact to rarely open, 2–15 cm wide. |
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Peduncles | absent or erect, slender, 0.1–0.5 cm, tomentose. |
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Involucres | 1 per node, campanulate, 3–5 × 2.5–4 mm, tomentose; teeth 5, erect, 0.3–0.8 mm. |
(3–)3.5–4(–5) mm. |
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Flowers | 2–4 mm; perianth white to rose, white-villous abaxially; tepals connate proximal 1/4, monomorphic, obovate; stamens exserted, 2–4 mm; filaments pilose proximally. |
2–2.5 mm. |
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Achenes | brown, 2–3.5 mm, glabrous. |
2–2.5 mm. |
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Eriogonum giganteum |
Eriogonum giganteum var. compactum |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Oct. | |||||||||
Habitat | Rocky outcrops and cliffs, coastal scrub communities | |||||||||
Elevation | 0-100 m (0-300 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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CA |
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). The California Department of Transportation is planting members of this insular species, especially var. giganteum, on the mainland, where it readily hybridizes with both E. fasciculatum and E. cinereum. Every effort should be made to remove the introduced E. giganteum from coastal California. The Avalon scrub-hairstreak butterfly (Strymon avalona), which is endemic to Santa Catalina Island, uses Eriogonum giganteum as a food plant. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Of conservation concern. Variety compactum is a rare and localized plant on Santa Barbara and Sutil islands, Santa Barbara County. It is in cultivation, but only in botanical gardens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 301. | FNA vol. 5, p. 302. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Eucycla | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Eucycla > Eriogonum giganteum | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | E. giganteum subsp. compactum | |||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 20: 371. (1885) | Dunkle: Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 41: 130. (1943) | ||||||||
Web links |