''Eriogonum brandegeei'' (sometimes spelled ''brandegei'')''Eriogonum brandegeei''.
NatureServe. is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name Brandegee's buckwheat. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in the United States, where it occurs in Fremont and Chaffee Counties.

Description

This plant grows up to about 25 centimeters tall and has grayish woolly herbage. Flowering stems arise from a matted base. All the leaves are located around the base of the plant. They are lance-shaped to somewhat oval and measure up to 4 or 5 centimeters long. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

atop each aerial stem is 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide and is a cluster of tiny yellowish white or pinkAnderson, D.G. (2006, February 27)
''Eriogonum brandegeei'' Reveal (Brandegee’s buckwheat): A technical conservation assessment.
nline USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. flowers. Flowering occurs in July through October.''Eriogonum brandegeei''.
Flora of North America. The plant turns purple during the winter.

Distribution and habitat

This plant grows in soils that are high in

bentonite Bentonite ( ) is an Absorption (chemistry), absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelli ...

. Bentonite soils can host few types of plants, so the landscape is often sparsely vegetated. This species can be found on substrates belonging to or derived from the Dry Union Formation and

Morrison Formation The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...

, two local

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics (lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock expo ...

s. It can grow on flat ground or steep slopes. The habitat in the area is mainly pinyon-juniper woodland. It can also be found in shrublands within a matrix of plant communities. Associated plants include '' Atriplex canescens'', '' Opuntia imbricata'', '' Bouteloua gracilis'', '' Oryzopsis hymenoides'', '' Aristida fendleriana'', '' Sphaeralcea coccinea'', '' Cleome serrulata'', '' Melilotus alba'', '' Salsola iberica'', '' Kochia iranica'', ''

Melilotus officinalis ''Melilotus officinalis'', known as sweet yellow clover, yellow melilot, ribbed melilot and common melilot, is a species of legume native to Eurasia and introduced in North America, Africa, and Australia. Description ''Melilotus officinalis'' ca ...

'', and ''

Bouteloua curtipendula ''Bouteloua curtipendula'', commonly known as sideoats grama, is a perennial, short prairie grass that is native throughout the temperate and tropical Western Hemisphere, from Canada south to Argentina. The botanical name, species epithet comes ...

''.

Conservation

The worst threat to the species is recreational activity. All occurrences of the plant are affected by

off-road vehicle An off-road vehicle (ORV), also known as an off-highway vehicle (OHV), overland vehicle or adventure vehicle, is a type of transportation specifically engineered to navigate unpaved roads and surfaces. These include trails, forest roads, and ...

use. The plant grows on slopes that are mostly free of vegetation, terrain that is attractive to off-road vehicle users. Horseback riding may also threaten some occurrences. An increasing threat is residential development, which is encroaching on the area. Fremont County's population grew 43% between 1990 and 2000, making it one of the most rapidly growing counties in the US. Chaffee County also has fast growth at this time. Habitat for this plant has been lost to residential growth. Bentonite mining is a potential threat, but not a current one.

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

excavation is a very low-level threat to some occurrences. Livestock grazing is a threat, but an indirect one, as it tends to increase

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

of the substrate. Despite threats and limited available habitat, the species appears to be stable.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5389347 brandegeei Flora of Colorado