Eriogonum heracleoides var. heracleoides

Parsnip-flowered buckwheat

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Parsnip-flowered buckwheat is a California native perennial found in western California in sandy to gravelly habitats at elevations of 600 to 3,100 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces white to cream or yellow-white flowers in delicate clusters with spoon-shaped perianth lobes. Growing as a low spreading mat one to six decimeters tall and two to ten decimeters wide, it develops tomentose stems with leaf-like bracts near the middle. Its basal leaves are grayish and woolly, with blades two to five centimeters long and rarely more than one centimeter wide. The plant forms a compact, low-growing form with distinctive white to cream flowers that emerge from tomentose branches.

Habitat: Locally common. Sand to gravel

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: (300)600-3100 m

Bioregions: Wrn

California counties: Modoc, El Dorado, Butte

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