James' wild-buckwheat

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James' wild-buckwheat leaves

James' wild-buckwheat

James' wild-buckwheat habit

James' wild-buckwheat habit

James' wild-buckwheat flowers

James' wild-buckwheat

James' wild-buckwheat

James' wild-buckwheat

James' wild-buckwheat

James' wild-buckwheat leaves

Morphology

Stem

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.

Inflorescence

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

Flower

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.

Fruit

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

Ecology

Habitat

Rocky, mixed-grass prairies.

Distribution

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

Practical Information

Uses

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

Additional Notes