Western Mojave Buckwheat

Eriogonum mohavense is typically local and infrequent, and only rarely locally common. It is restricted to the northwestern corner of the Mojave Desert in southeastern Kern, northeastern Los Angeles, and northwestern San Bernardino counties. It occurs also just inside Inyo County. An 1882 C. C. Parry collection (NY) supposedly from San Diego is discounted as to location.

Herbs, erect to spreading, 1-3 dm, glabrous, greenish to yellowish green. Stems: aerial flowering stems erect, 0.2-1 dm, glabrous. Leaves basal; petiole 1-4 cm, tomentose; blade oblong to rounded, (0.4-)0.6-2 × (0.4-)0.6-2 cm, white-tomentose and grayish on both surfaces, or slightly less so adaxially. Inflorescences cymose, diffuse, spreading, 5-25 × 5-20 cm; branches glabrous; bracts 0.5-1.5 × 1-2 mm. Peduncles absent. Involucres terminal at tips of slender branchlets at least proximally, not appressed to branches, turbinate, 1.7-2 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous; teeth 5, erect, 0.5-0.9 mm. Flowers 0.7-1 mm; perianth yellow, glabrous, infrequently glandular proximally; tepals monomorphic, narrowly oblong to elliptic; stamens included to slightly exserted, 0.8-1.2 mm; filaments pilose proximally. Achenes dark brown to nearly black, lenticular, 1-1.2 mm.

Calif.

Flowering May-Sep.

Sandy to infrequently clayey flats and slopes, saltbush and creosote bush communities; of conservation concern; 600-1200m.

Eriogonum mohavense is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Western Mojave buckwheat. It is endemic to the Mojave Desert of California. It is an annual herb producing a slender, erect flowering stem up to about 30 centimetres (12 in) tall. The woolly, rounded leaves are located around the base of the stem. The branches of the inflorescence produce many small clusters of tiny yellow flowers.