Eriogonum gracile

Slender buckwheat

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: annual · Native

Slender buckwheat is a California native annual herb found in various bioregions, growing in open grasslands and dry habitats at elevations of 100 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from June to September, this delicate plant produces white to pink or pale yellow flowers in small clustered heads less than 3 millimeters wide. Growing with slender, generally tomentose stems 15 to 50 centimeters tall, it forms a sparse, branching structure. Its leaves are primarily basal and stem-based, with blades 1 to 4 centimeters long and 0.5 to 2 centimeters wide, covered in soft, woolly hairs. The tiny fruit is 1 to 2 millimeters long, nestled within small, hairy involucres.

California counties: Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Mateo, San Diego, Ventura, Orange, Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Santa Clara, Kern, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Merced, Alameda, Colusa, Mono, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Solano, Napa, El Dorado, Madera, Lassen, Nevada, Tuolumne, Lake, Inyo, Mariposa

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