Plant Name
Scientific Name: Eriogonum fasciculatum
Common Names: Eastern Mojave Buckwheat, California Buckwheat
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Shrub, Subshrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland
Flower Color: White, Pale pink
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall (early)
Height: To 2 feet (61 cm) tall
Description: The small, 6-lobed flowers are in dense, flattened, terminal clusters or in umbels of multiple flower clusters at the branch tips. The flowers turn rusty brown as they age and dry on the plant. The leaves densely line the slender, woody stems and are small, gray-green, leathery, up to 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) long, and narrowly linear to oblanceolate in shape.
Special Characteristics
Butterfly Plant – The flowers attract butterflies, especially Blue butterflies (Subfamily Polyommatinae) in early spring.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Caryophyllidae
Order: Polygonales
Family: Polygonaceae – Buckwheat family
Genus: Eriogonum Michx. – buckwheat
Species: Eriogonum fasciculatum Benth. – Eastern Mojave buckwheat
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