California Buckwheat
Eriogonum fasciculatum
Dried buckwheat flowers
California buckwheat is a native shrub that seems to understand the desert's arrangement of things: make little demand, hold on to what you have, and look ordinary until the season turns in your favor.
It grows on dry slopes, in washes, and along canyons, where the ground may be loose, stony, and unwilling to give up water. Its many slender branches make a low, spreading plant, usually one to three feet high. The narrow leaves gather in little clusters along the stems. Above they may look green and plain enough; below, they are often soft with pale hairs, as if they have been holding dust from a country no one else notices.
From late spring into fall, the shrub puts out broad, flat clusters of tiny flowers, white at first and sometimes touched with pink. Then the flowers dry in place and become rust-colored, like a signal left behind after the message has gone. The small, light-brown seeds remain, angular and nearly invisible.
There are several varieties of Eriogonum fasciculatum, and their names, ranges, and leaf forms shift across California and the Southwest. In the Mojave, the plant may be called Mojave Desert California buckwheat, eastern Mojave buckwheat, or simply wild buckwheat. It is the same familiar presence, though the desert has altered it slightly from place to place.
California buckwheat occurs from coastal California and the Transverse and Peninsular ranges into the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, and beyond into Arizona, Utah, and northwestern Mexico. It belongs in scrub, on dry slopes, in washes, and in the rough country between the coast and the interior desert.
For the Cahuilla, this plant had uses beyond its appearance. Historical ethnobotanical records report leaf tea for headache and stomach pain, root tea for colds and throat trouble, and a root poultice for wounds. Those records describe traditional practice; they should not be treated as modern medical advice.
The dried flower heads remain long after their color is gone. They are easy to pass without seeing. But in the right light they tell the whole story of the plant: it has finished one season, stored what it can, and is waiting without complaint for the next.
High Desert Plains and Hills: Mojave Desert Ecological Subsections
Shrublands: Allscale series, Birchleaf mountain-mahogany - California buckwheat series, Brittlebrush series, California buckwheat series, Chamise series, ...
Pinto Basin and Mountains: Mojave Desert Ecological Subsections
Shrublands: Birchleaf mountain-mahogany - California buckwheat series, Brittlebush series, California buckwheat series, Creosote bush series, Creosote bush ...
Mojave Desert Wildflower List
California Buckwheat - Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium - W177-mackay. Cream Cups - Platystemon californicus. Datura - Datura wrightii. Desert Alyssum ...
Mojave Yucca - Spanish Dagger
Joshua tree, banana yucca, blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima), creosotebush (Larrea tridentata), white sage (Salvia apiana), California buckwheat ...
Chamise-Redshank Chaparral Wildlife Habitats
In southern California, white sage, black sage, and California buckwheat are common at lower elevations and on recently disturbed sites (Hanes 1965, 1977).
Lucerne - Johnson Valleys and Hills: Mojave Desert Ecological ...
Shrublands: Allscale series, Black bush series, Brittlebrush series, California buckwheat series, Catclaw acacia series, Creosote bush series, Creosote bush ...
Desert woodrat
In coastal scrub, prefers live oak, chamise, and buckwheat as food plants ( Meserve 1974). Creosote, cholla, and prickly-pear are eaten in the Mojave Desert ...
Deep Creek Hot Springs
The vegetation ranges from sparse creosote, chamise and California buckwheat at lower elevations to oak and pinyon woodland and scattered mixed conifer, ...
Joshua Tree - Habitat
Shrub species include big sagebrush, blackbrush, Nevada ephedra, California buckwheat, Cooper goldenbush, burrobush, creasotebush, Anderson's wolfberry, ...
Mormon Pioneers
California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculata, Buckwheat ... Camp Resting Springs A Mormon mail train was attacked here in 1854. There are still evidences of a ...
Juniper - California Juniper
snakeweed (Gutierrizia brecteata), narrowleaf goldenweed, and California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). Desert edge and chaparral associates include ...
Alpine Dwarf-Shrub Habitat
... alpine Eschscholtz buttercup, wild onion, rock-cress, mariposa lily, and several species of buckwheat (Parker and Matyas 1981, Cheatham and Haller 1975).
Alkali Desert Scrub Wildlife Habitat
... kidney-leaved buckwheat, obtuse-leaved cleomella, desert sunbonnet, Booth evening-primrose, browneyed evening-primrose, desert globe-mallow, Nevada ...
Juniper - Ecosystems & Habitats
Shrub species typically associated with juniper habitats include antelope bitterbrush, California buckwheat, wax currant, gray horsebrush, green Mormon- tea, ...
Skull Rock - Jumbo Rock Campground
Red Top Buckwheat. Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) is a low spreading, green leaved plant ... A Delicate Balance. A member of the cypress family, ...
Xeric - Mojave Desert - Glossary of Terms and Definitions
The predominant natural plant communities are California sagebrush - California buckwheat series and ... Bucks Lake Soil moisture regimes are mostly xeric.
Bladderpod - Peritoma arborea - Desert Wildflowers
Birchleaf mountain-mahogany - California buckwheat series, Bitterbrush series , Black bush series, Bladderpod - California ephedra - narrowleaf goldenbush .
Desert Scrub Wildlife Habitats
1980), Mojave Creosotebush - 41, Sonoran Creosotebush - 42 (Küchler 1977), Rabbitbrush Series, Buckwheat Series (Parker and Matyas 1981), Croton Series ...
Desert Trumpet - Eriogonum inflatum - Desert Wildflowers
Also found in similar soils in Joshua tree, and pinon-juniper woodlands. Flowers - January to May Buckwheat Family (Polygonaceae) Native American plant use: ...
Diet of the Kawaiisu
Seeds (wild rice, chia, sunflower and buckwheat, to name a few) were collected by sweeping them into a cloth-lined burden basket with a twined seed beater.
Jeffrey Pine - Ecosystems & Wildlife Habitats
Herbaceous species common to the Jeffrey pine type in southern California include rockcress, birdbeak, buckwheat, fritillary, groundsmoke, ivesia, lupine, rock ...
Endangered Species in the Mojave Desert
Sticky buckwheat, Eriogonum viscidulum - C KEY TO FEDERAL STATUS: E — Endangered T — Threatened C — Candidate S — Sensitive Source/references: