''Eriogonum coloradense'' is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name Colorado 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.''Eriogonum coloradense''.
NatureServe. This species is a mat-forming herb growing just a few centimeters tall. The leaves are located around the base of the plant. They are up to 4 or 5 centimeters long and are mostly green on top with woolly undersides. 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 ...

s are borne atop flowering stems reaching up to about 10 centimeters tall. The inflorescence is a cluster of tiny white to pink flowers.''Eriogonum coloradense''.
Flora of North America. This species is most closely related to '' Eriogonum lonchophyllum'',Anderson, D.G. (2004, October 14)
''Eriogonum coloradense'' Small (Colorado buckwheat): a technical conservation assessment.
nline USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. and some authors, including ''Eriogonum'' expert James Reveal, suspect it may be a form of that species. Most of the occurrences of this Colorado endemic plant are located in the vicinity of the Maroon Bells–Snowmass Wilderness. It has a "broad ecological range", occurring in many types of habitat. It occurs on a variety of soils, flat or sloping terrain, every aspect, and a number of

landform A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement ...

s. It occurs in several

plant communities A plant community is a collection or Association (ecology), association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The comp ...

and at a range of

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

s. Considering its ability to live in a range of environmental conditions it is unclear why the plant is not more common. The main threat to this species is recreational activity in its mountain habitat. It occurs at popular recreational sites near

Crested Butte Crested Butte is a prominent mountain summit in the Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The peak is in Gunnison National Forest, northeast by east ( bearing 59°) of the Town of Crested Butte in Gunnison County, C ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5389356 coloradense Flora of Colorado