Eriogonum plumatella |
Polygonaceae subfam. eriogonoideae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
flat top buckwheat, yucca buckwheat, yucca wild buckwheat |
wild buckwheat |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habit | Shrubs, erect, not scapose, 3–10(–12) × 3–6(–8) dm, tomentose or glabrous, grayish or greenish. | Shrubs, subshrubs, or herbs, sometimes nearly arborescent (Eriogonum), perennial, biennial, or annual, homophyllous, polycarpic (rarely monocarpic in Eriogonum); taproot solid or, rarely, chambered (Eriogonum), slender to stout. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | erect, without persistent leaf bases, up to 1/2 or more height of plant; caudex stems absent; aerial flowering stems erect, slender, solid, not fistulose, 0.5–2 dm, tomentose or glabrous. |
prostrate or decumbent to spreading or erect, sometimes scapose, rarely absent (Eriogonum), without recurved spines, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes glandular; nodes not swollen; tendrils absent; caudex stems tightly compact to spreading and at or just below the soil surface or spreading to erect and above the soil surface, woody; aerial flowering stems decumbent to spreading or erect, arising at nodes of caudex branches, at distal nodes of aerial branches, or directly from the root, slender to stout and solid or slightly to distinctly fistulose, rarely disarticulating in ringlike segments (Eriogonum). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | basal and cauline, 1 per node; petiole 0.1–0.5 cm, mostly tomentose; blade oblanceolate, 0.6–1.5 × 0.2–0.3 cm, tomentose on both surfaces, occasionally slightly less so adaxially, margins plane. |
deciduous (persistent in some shrubby and matted Eriogonum species), basal or basal and cauline, rarely only cauline, rosulate, alternate, or infrequently opposite (Goodmania) or in whorls of 3 (Gilmania); stipules absent (possibly vestigial in some perennial species of Chorizanthe); petiole present, sometimes indistinct, not articulate or with extrafloral nectaries; blade simple, rarely lobed (Pterostegia), rarely awn-tipped (Goodmania). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inflorescences | cymose, flat-topped and in tiers, 15–40 × 15–40 cm; branches dichotomous, divaricately arranged in a zig-zag pattern, tomentose or glabrous; bracts 3, scalelike, 1–7 mm. |
terminal or terminal and axillary, cymose and dichotomously or trichotomously branched, or racemose, simple or compound umbellate, or capitate; bracts usually connate proximally, leaflike or scalelike, entire apically, sometimes awn-tipped, glabrous or pubescent. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peduncles | absent. |
absent or erect to deflexed relative to inflorescence branch, sometimes reflexed, straight or curved. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Involucres | 1 per node, turbinate, 2–2.5 × 1.5–2 mm, glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.4–0.6 mm. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Flowers | 2–2.5 mm; perianth white to pale yellow, glabrous; tepals connate proximal 1/4 dimorphic, those of outer whorl obovate, those of inner whorl oblong; stamens exserted, 2–4 mm; filaments pilose proximally. |
(1–)2–30(–100) per involucral structure, occasionally with stipelike base distal to articulations (Eriogonum); perianth accrescent in fruit, mostly white to red, yellow, light green, greenish white, maroon, or purple, urceolate to campanulate, occasionally glandular or pustulose abaxially, nearly always minutely glandular along midvein adaxially, glabrous or pubescent; tepals (5–)6, in 2 whorls of 3, connate proximally, typically not forming tube (except Chorizanthe, Lastarriaea, Mucronea, Pterostegia), petaloid or, rarely, coriaceous (Lastarriaea), monomorphic or dimorphic, entire, emarginate, or lobed to laciniate apically, rarely awn-tipped (Lastarriaea) or apiculate (Eriogonum); nectary a disk at base of ovary; stamens 3, 6, or 9 (variously 3–9 in Chorizanthe, Mucronea); staminodes absent; filaments usually distinct, occasionally forming staminal tube (Chorizanthe); pistils 3-carpellate, homostylous; ovary 1-locular; ovule 1, orthotropous, placentation basal; styles 3, distinct; stigmas capitate. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achenes | light brown to brown, 2.5–3 mm, glabrous. |
brown to black or maroon, homocarpic, winged or unwinged, 3-gonous, less often lenticular or globose-lenticular to globose. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seeds | embryo straight or curved. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Involucral | structures tubular (involucre) or consisting of a series of individual bractlike lobes (involucral bracts) arranged in whorls or spirals, rarely absent (Gilmania), awns present or absent; involucre cylindric, prismatic, turbinate, campanulate, urceolate, or funnelform with 3–8(–36) usually erect teeth or 4–12 spreading to reflexed lobes (teeth and lobes are distal portions of proximally connate involucral bracts); involucral bracts in 1–3 whorls, rarely in spirals (Johanneshowellia), free or connate only at base, linear to oblanceolate or ovate. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eriogonum plumatella |
Polygonaceae subfam. eriogonoideae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Sandy flats, washes, and slopes, mixed grassland, saltbush, blackbrush, and creosote bush communities, oak and pinyon-juniper woodlands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 400-1700 m (1300-5600 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV
|
Mainly temperate regions of w North America (Alaska to Mexico); uncommon in South America (Argentina and Chile) and e North America (WVa s to c Fla, e to Mo, Okla, and Tex) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discussion | Eriogonum plumatella is encountered infrequently, primarily on the Mojave Desert, where it occurs in two forms, one with pubescent (var. plumatella) and one with glabrous (var. jaegeri) inflorescence branches. As both forms occur occasionally in the same population, the varieties are not considered to be taxonomically significant. Eriogonum plumatella occurs from Kern County, California, south through Los Angeles (including the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains), San Bernardino, and Riverside counties to eastern San Diego County. To the east the species is found in Clark County, Nevada, and Mohave and western Yavapai counties, Arizona. A single specimen (Palmer s.n., GH) reportedly was gathered in Utah. Repeated efforts to find the plant in Washington County, Utah, have been unsuccessful, and the record is discounted here. This species is the food plant for the rare pallid dotted-blue butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens pallescens). According to M. L. Zigmond (1981), the Kawaiisu pounded the seeds into a powder and made a mush. Given the small size of the achenes, and the paucity of large populations, the task of gathering sufficient seed must have been daunting. In taste, these seeds differ little from other, more common members of wild buckwheat, so it is likely that achenes of several species were gathered and processed into a watery meal. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 20, species ca. 325 (19 genera, 281 species in the flora). Detailed habitat, elevation, and distribution data for the eriogonoid genera are maintained by the author and available on the Web at: “Eriogonoideae (Polygonaceae) of North America north of Mexico” (http://www.life.umd.edu/emeritus/reveal/pbio/eriog/key.html). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 308. | FNA vol. 5, p. 218. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae > Eriogonum > subg. Eucycla | Polygonaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | E. plumatella var. jaegeri | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Durand & Hilgard: J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, n. s. 3: 45. (1855) | Arnott: in M. Napier, Encycl. Brit. ed. 7, 5: 126. (1832) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |