Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - James' wild-buckwheat

JAMES' WILD-BUCKWHEAT

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Eriogonum jamesii Benth.

Logan County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-12 inches

Family: Polygonaceae - Buckwheat Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August

Stems:

Erect, much-branched at base, tomentose to floccose.

Leaves:

Basal, usually not forming distinct rosette; petiole .02 to 2.4 inch; blade elliptic to oblanceolate, .4 to 2.5 inch long, .02 to 2 inch wide, margins plane or undulate and crisped, apex rounded to acute or acuminate, lower surface densely tomentose, upper surface thinly tomentose, floccose, or glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Umbels or compound umbels, on flowering stems 4 to 12 inches long; bracts 3-9, leaflike below, .2 to .8 inch.

Flowers:

Involucres 1-8+ per cluster, top-shaped, .06 to .28 inch, tomentose to floccose. Flowers .12 to .3 inch; perianth white to cream-colored, turning brownish orange in fruit, lower surface densely pubescent; perianth segments 6, of two types, outer lanceolate to elliptic, inner lanceolate to fan-shaped; stamens exserted, .08 to .16 inch.

Fruits:

Achenes, brown, .16 to .2 inch, 3-angled, glabrous except for sparingly pubescent beak.

Habitat:

Rocky, mixed-grass prairies.

Distribution:

Kansas plants have been named var. simplex Gand.; the variety is endemic to Logan and Scott counties.

Uses:

Native Americans in the Southwest used Eriogonum jamesii for a number of medicinal and ceremonial purposes.

Comments:

Herbs or subshrubs, usually tufted or mat-forming.Eriogonum jamesii, for Edwin James, botanist and geologist with Stephen Long's expedition of 1819-1820.

James' wild-buckwheat habit