Eriogonum breedlovei

Piute buckwheat

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Piute buckwheat is a California native perennial herb found in rocky alpine and subalpine habitats at elevations of 1,200 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces delicate white to reddish flowers in small clusters approximately 1 to 2.5 centimeters wide. Growing as a low, spreading mat only 2 to 15 centimeters tall with slender, glandular-hairy stems, it forms compact cushion-like formations in high-elevation landscapes. Its basal leaves are small and densely tomentose, typically 2 to 8 millimeters long and 2 to 4 millimeters wide, creating a compact silvery-green groundcover. The fruit is small, approximately 2.5 to 3 millimeters long with a sparsely glandular tip.

California counties: Kern, Alpine, Inyo

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