Eriogonum spergulinum, the Spurry Buckwheat

wpadmin June 23, 2022 2 min read

Wandering round sandy highlands of the southwest United States, you might encounter a sparse, wiry weed rising between 5 and forty centimetres in top. That is the spurry buckwheat Eriogonum spergulinum.

Spurry buckwheat Eriogonum spergulinum, copyright Dcrjsr.

Members of the buckwheat household Polygonaceae are discovered worldwide however are typically simply missed as low, scrubby weeds. In North America, some of the various genera is Eriogonum, identified from about 250 species although many are tough to readily distinguish (Hickman 1993). Eriogonum spergulinum is likely one of the extra recognisable species within the genus. As talked about above, it grows in sandy soils, significantly these dominated by worn-down granite, and is discovered at altitudes between 1200 and 3500 metres. It’s an annual herb with basal leaves of a linear form, lower than two millimetres broad however as much as thirty millimetres lengthy. The better a part of the plant’s top is made up by the slender, cyme-like inflorescence bearing unribbed, four-toothed involucres on slender stalks. The flowers are as much as three millimetres in diameter with a white perianth marked by darker stripes. Total, E. spergulinum in flower resembles a drifting cloud of small white stars.

Shut-up on Eriogonum spergulinum flowers, copyright Tom Hilton.

Three kinds of Eriogonum spergulinum have been recognised although they aren’t at all times distinct and have a tendency to intergrade with one another. In most elements of the species’ vary, vegetation belong to the range E. spergulinum var. reddingianum. This selection is characterised by erect inflorescences with glandular axes and flowers about two millimetres in diameter. The opposite two varieties are each restricted to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Eriogonum spergulinum var spergulinum resembles var. reddingianum however produces bigger flowers, about three millimetres in diameter. Eriogonum spergulinum var. pratense is extra distinctive. Inflorescences are prostrate to ascending, solely about two to 5 millimetres in top, and lack glands on the axes. Flowers are only one.5 millimetres throughout. Pratense can also be a higher-altitude selection, discovered at heights above 2500 metres. The Sierra Nevada varieties are each unusual; if any selection is prone to be discovered, it’s the widespread reddingianum.

REFERENCE

Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Handbook: Larger Vegetation of California. College of California Press: Berkeley (California).