Common Names: Wright’s Buckwheat, Bastard-sage, Wild Buckwheat, Perennial Buckwheat, Shrubby Buckwheat, Shrubby Bastard-sage
Synonyms: Eriogonum wrightii var subscaposum
Taxonomy: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae)
Habit: perennial forb, herb
Size: up to 16”
Flowers: white, pink 5 petals
Bloom: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct
Leaves: basal
Fruit: achene
Description:
Eriogonum wrightii var subscaposum is a small buckwheat, compact and mounding with the plant about 16” tall. It has very small, gray-white leaves on a low mat that can eventually get 2′ across in higher elevations. Wright’s Buckwheat has slender pale pink flower spikes. Like many other buckwheats it is a variable species, occurring in a range of habitats, and six varieties are recognized, differing in leaf and flower dimensions, the amount and nature of the hair covering, and, in particular, in the growth form, which varies from sizeable, woody shrubs (var nodosum, var membranaceum, var wrightii and var trachygonum) to low, matted herbs, less than one foot high (the common var subscaposum and the rare var olanchense).
Distribution: AZ, CA, NM, NV, TX, UT
Seen: UT
Habitat: hillsides and slopes
