Singlestem Buckwheat

Description

Eriogonum caespitosum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name matted buckwheat, or mat buckwheat. This is a common perennial plant native to the western United States from California to Montana, especially the Great Basin. It is also cultivated as a rock garden plant.This is a tough perennial plant which grows in flat, woody mats in sand and gravel substrates. It has small, fuzzy gray leaves which are scoop-shaped due to their rolled edges. From the mat emerge many erect inflorescences with clusters of greenish-yellow and bright red rounded flowers which hang backwards over the edge of the involucre. Some of the flowers are bisexual and up to a centimeter wide each, and some are only staminate and are much smaller.