Eriogonum kennedyi var. kennedyi

Kennedy's wild buckwheat

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Kennedy's wild buckwheat is a California native perennial found in northern Western Transverse Ranges near Mount Pinos and the San Bernardno Mountains in gravelly habitats at elevations of 1,700 to 2,700 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to cream-colored flowers in small, delicate clusters. Growing as a low-spreading plant 10 to 12 centimeters tall and up to 30 centimeters wide, it forms compact mats with slender, glabrous stems. Its small leaves are distinctively gray to brown-white and covered in dense woolly tomentum, often with margins slightly rolled under, measuring just 2 to 4 millimeters long. The compact flowering heads and tiny leaves make this buckwheat a subtle but charming component of high-elevation gravelly landscapes.

Habitat: Gravel

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 1700-2700 m

Bioregions: n WTR (Mount Pinos), SnBr.

California counties: Ventura, San Bernardino, Kern, Inyo, Los Angeles

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