Eriogonum brachypodum

Parry's wild buckwheat

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: annual · Native

Parry's wild buckwheat is a California native annual found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert bioregions on sandy habitats at elevations of 100 to 2,300 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces white to reddish flowers in open, glandular branched clusters up to 40 centimeters long. Growing from 0.5 to 4 decimeters tall with glandular stems, it develops a low-spreading form characteristic of desert environments. Its basal leaves are rounded, typically 1 to 3 centimeters long, and covered in dense white tomentose (woolly) indumentum that helps the plant retain moisture in arid conditions. The fruit is small, glabrous, and approximately 1.5 to 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Common. Sand

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: 100-2300 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Riverside

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.