Abert's Wild Buckwheat
Eriogonum abertianum
Photographed in Rackensack Canyon, May 2008.
Sponsored Links:
ANNUAL: A medium-sized annual mostly less than
½ meters tall. One or several stems from base and freely
branching above. Stems appear white due to abundance of appressed hairs.
Apparent in late spring and after summer rains, depending on rainfall.
FLOWERS: Groups of white or pale yellow flowers are subtended by five
(usu.) fused bracts forming an involucre. After opening the flowers may dry to
brown or reddish. These groups of flowers are further arranged into cymes.
Blooming mostly May through Oct. if moisture present.
LEAVES: Leaves are elyptic and are distributed along stem and at base.
Margins are smooth and usu. there is copious hairs sometimes with a reddish
cast. The flowering peduncle has leafy bracts typically 3 to 6 at each
branching point.
RANGE: In the Sonoran Desert in Arizona this plant is found at the upper
elevations and towards east in transition to grassland or Chihuahuan Desert.
Ranges east to Texas. Growth form is highly variable from region to region and
even season to season.
FRUIT: Dry single-seeded smooth capsule with one seed - an achene.
UNARMED. No spines or thorns.
Polygonaceae -- Buckwheat Family
Sponsored Links:
Close-up of leaves. Photographed in Rackensack Canyon, May 2008.