Coville's Buckwheat

Eriogonum covilleanum is encountered infrequently in the Inner Coast Ranges of central and southwestern California (Fresno, Kern, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, and Ventura counties). On occasion it can be locally common but is never abundant or weedy. It is often found growing with other annual wild buckwheats, and care must be taken to sort the species.

Herbs, erect, 1-4 dm, glabrous, green to reddish. Stems: aerial flowering stems erect, 0.3-1 dm, glabrous. Leaves basal; petiole 1-4(-5) cm, tomentose; blade suborbiculate to reniform, (0.3-)0.5-1.5 × 0.5-1.5(-1.8) cm, densely white-tomentose abaxially, glabrous and bright green adaxially. Inflorescences cymose, infrequently distally uniparous due to suppression of secondary branches, open, 5-35 × 5-30 cm; branches glabrous; bracts 1-2 × 0.5-1 mm. Peduncles absent. Involucres terminal at tips of slender branchlets proximally, not appressed to branches, turbinate, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.4-0.8 mm. Flowers 2-2.5(-3) mm; perianth pink at early anthesis, becoming white to rose or yellow, minutely puberulent; tepals monomorphic, narrowly elliptic; stamens included, 1.7-2 mm; filaments glabrous. Achenes light brown, 3-gonous, 1.8-2 mm. 2n = 34.

Calif.

Flowering Apr-Aug.

Shale or serpentine outcrops and slopes, chaparral communities, oak and pine woodlands; 200-1400m.

Eriogonum vimineum Douglas ex Bentham var. covilleanum (Eastwood) S. Stokes

Eriogonum covilleanum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Coville's buckwheat. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the Coast Ranges from the Bay Area to the hills north of the Los Angeles area. It is uncommon in general but it can be locally common in some places. An upright, reddish-tinged green blooming stem up to around 40 centimeters high is produced by this perennial plant. The leaves are under 2 centimeters long, rounded to oblong in shape, and woolly in texture, especially on the undersides. The many scattered inflorescences are small, compact clusters of tiny flowers in shades of yellow or pinkish to white.