Eriogonum thurberi

Thurber's wild buckwheat, Thurber's Wild Buckwheat

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: annual · Native

Thurber's wild buckwheat is a California native annual found in eastern Peninsular Ranges, southern Mojave Desert, and Sonoran Desert regions in sandy habitats at elevations of 100 to 1,200 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces white to red flowers in delicate, thread-like inflorescences up to 50 centimeters wide. Growing 0.5 to 4 decimeters tall with erect, slender stems that are glabrous with sparse glandular hairs near the base, it forms loose, open branching patterns. Its basal leaves are distinctive, measuring 0.8 to 4.5 centimeters long and 0.5 to 3 centimeters wide, with a tomentose undersurface and sparsely hairy or smooth upper surface. The fruit is a small, elliptic seed approximately 0.6 to 0.8 millimeters long.

Habitat: Common. Sand

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: 100-1200 m

Bioregions: e PR, s DMoj, DSon

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