Tall Woolly Buckwheat

Eriogonum elatum is widely distributed but rather scattered throughout its range. The plants are occasionally seen in the garden. Inflorescence branches were chewed or made into an infusion and taken as a physic by some Native American people (D. E. Moerman 1986).

Herbs, erect, not scapose, 4-8(-15) × 1-4 dm, glabrous or villous. Stems erect, without persistent leaf bases, up to 5 height of plant; caudex stems absent; aerial flowering stems erect, slender to stout, solid or hollow, infrequently fistulose, 1.5-4(-8) dm, glabrous, tomen­-tose, or villous.  Leaves basal; petiole 5-25 cm, villous; blade lanceolate to lance-ovate, 4-15(-25) × 1.5-6 cm, loosely villous and green on both surfaces or infrequently thinly tomentose abaxially and glabrate adaxially, margins plane. Inflorescences cymose, 15-50 × 10-30 cm; branches glabrous or villous; bracts 3, semileaflike, linear, and 5-30 × 2-5 mm proximally, scalelike, triangular, and 1-4 mm distally. Peduncles absent or slender, erect, 0.5-4 cm, glabrous or tomentose. Involucres 1 per node or 2-5 per cluster, turbinate, (2.5-)3-4 × 2.5-3 mm, glabrous or slightly tomentose; teeth 5, erect, 0.4-0.9 mm. Flowers 2.5-4 mm, glabrous; perianth white; tepals connate proximal 1/ 4, monomorphic, obovate; stamens exserted, 2.5-4 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes light brown, 3.5-4 mm, glabrous.

Eriogonum elatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name tall woolly buckwheat. It is native to the western United States from California to Idaho. It is a perennial herb varying in size from one half to 1.5 meters in height. Its long leaves are located at the base of the plant and can be quite long for a buckwheat, over 20 centimeters in maximum length. The erect, branching stems are thin and naked and occasionally hollow. The plant produces small to large inflorescences with clusters of tiny flowers in shades of white to dark pink.