Eriogonum parvifolium |
Eriogonum annuum |
|
---|---|---|
dune wild buckwheat, sea cliff buckwheat, seacliff wild buckwheat |
annual buckwheat, annual wild buckwheat |
|
Habit | Shrubs, matted to spreading or rounded, 3–10 × 5–20(–25) dm, thinly tomentose or glabrous, greenish. | Herbs, 5–20 × 5–10 dm, grayish. |
Stems | 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. |
|
Aerial flowering stems | slender, 4–10(–15) dm, floccose to densely tomentose. |
|
Leaves | 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. |
petiole (rosette) 0.3–1.2 cm, or petiole (cauline) 0.2–0.5 cm, tomentose to floccose; blade oblanceolate to oblong, 1–7 × 0.3–1.5 cm, densely tomentose abaxially, floccose adaxially not thickened and auriculate-subclasping proximally; margins entire or slightly revolute. |
Inflorescences | 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. |
3–10 × 2–7 cm; bracts triangular, 1–4 mm. |
Peduncles | absent. |
0.1–0.5 cm, tomentose to floccose. |
Involucres | 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. |
turbinate to campanulate, 2.5–4 × 2–3 mm, tomentose to floccose abaxially, glabrous adaxially; teeth 5–6, 0.4–1 mm. |
Flowers | 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. |
1–2.5 mm; perianth white or cream to rose; tepals: those of outer whorl obovate, 1–2 × 0.9–1.5 mm, those of inner whorl narrowly ovate to oblong, 1.5–4 × 1.2–1.8 mm; stamens usually included, 1–2 mm. |
Achenes | brown, 2.5–3 mm, glabrous. |
1.5–2 mm. |
2n | = 40. |
= 40. |
Eriogonum parvifolium |
Eriogonum annuum |
|
Phenology | Flowering year-round. | Flowering Apr–Nov. |
Habitat | Sandy beaches, dunes, and bluffs or sandy to gravelly inland slopes and flats, coastal grassland and chaparral communities, oak and pine woodlands | Sandy flats, slopes, dunes, and banks, mixed grassland, oak and conifer woodlands |
Elevation | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) | (0-)100-1900(-2300) m ((0-)300-6200(-7500) ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
CO; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua)
|
Discussion | 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.) |
Eriogonum annuum is widespread and common to locally abundant or even weedy on the Great Plains of the central United States and extreme north-central Mexico. It was collected in Sherburne County, Minnesota, in 1982, but that population did not persist. The species was recently found as an introduction at Sandy Hook in Monmouth County, New Jersey (Snyder & McArthur s.n., NY), but its fate there remains to be determined. Unfortunately, this weedy species recently has been introduced into northern Arizona as a roadside wild flower. C. L. Perez et al. (1998) have demonstrated that the seed bank can be rich in seeds of this species, but germination rates are low. The Lakota people traditionally used the annual wild buckwheat as an aid in the treatment of sore mouths in children, seemingly in association with teething (D. J. Rogers 1980). Leaves were used to stain buffalo and deer hides by the Kiowa (P. A. Vestal and R. E. Schultes 1939). Vestal (1952) stated that the species was considered a “life medicine” by the Navajo (Diné) people; it was used also for protection against witches. It is likely that E. annuum was obtained by the Navajo through trade, but it might have been grown locally in historic times where the species recently has been reintroduced. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 300. | FNA vol. 5. |
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Eucycla | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Micrantha |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. parvifolium var. crassifolium, E. parvifolium subsp. lucidum, E. parvifolium var. lucidum, E. parvifolium subsp. paynei, E. parvifolium var. paynei | E. annuum subsp. cymosum, E. annuum subsp. hitchcockii |
Name authority | Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 13(2): Eriogonum no. 2. (1809) | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 5: 164. (1835) |
Web links |